Teaching Courses
Teaching courses at BSc Level
- Forest Mensuration and Inventory
- Surveying, Mapping, GIS and Remote Sensing
- Forest Management
- Research Methodology
- Forest and Natural Resource Modelling
- GIS and Mapping
- Assignment on Forest Management Plan Preparation
1. Forest Mensuration and Inventory (15 hours)
Course outline
- Introduction (definitions, use, importance)
- Units of measurements (metric, imperial)
- Determination of age (precise estimations and guestimations)
- Individual tree measurements (diameter, height, basal area, volume, form, taper)
- Stand level measurements (diameter, height, form, taper, stand basal area)
- Estimation of tree volume (single tree volume, stand level volume)
- Sampling (subjective, objective, adaptive)
- Use of biometricts in inventory planning
- Evaluation of the site quality
Practical: Four 3-hour sessions (taking tree level/stand level measurements using different instruments, determination of tree volume using Huber's, Smalian's and Newton's formulae and comparision of results.
Field class: 2-day field class excursion at the Yagirala Forest Reserve (located in the Wet Zone, approximately 95 km towards South of Colombo) to have the "real forest experience" including analysis of the results.
2. Surveying, mapping, GIS and Remote Sensing (15 hours)
Course outline
- Introduction to surveying (definitions, importance)
- Locating a point (using known points)
- Scale (importance, types)
- Chain/tape survey (techniques, use)
- Cartography (points, lines, polygons, symbolisation, classification, generalisation)
- Angles and bearings (whole circle, quadrantal, azimuth, magnetic declination, magnetic variation)
- Levelling (datum, differetial levelling, profile levelling, cross sectioning)
- Remote sensing (satellite images, aerial photogrpahs, photo-interpretation)
- GIS (raster-vactor mapping)
Practical: Eight 3-hour sessions (introduction to the instruments, ground data collection using tape survey and theodalite survey, map understanding and map making using gathered data, drawing traverse polygons, area calculation, photo-interpretation).
3. Forest Management (15 hours)
Course outline
- Introduction (current status in forestry and forest management in Sri Lanka)
- Policies and objectives (relationship, policies formulated in 1995)
- Yield principles (sustained, intermittent, exploitation)
- Harvesting (types, planning, contraints, environmental considerations)
- Forest management plan preparation
- Criteria and indicators in forest management
- Forest certification
Field class: 2-day field class excursion at the Yagirala Forest Reserve (located in the Wet Zone, approximately 95 km towards South of Colombo) to collect the necessary data and to identify the opportunites (wood and non-wood) to prepare a detailed management plan which is assessed in the final examination.
4. Research Methodology (15 hours)
Course outline
- Introduction (research interest, use of biometrics in research)
- Research types (different categories or research, scientific method)
- Research steps (formulation to writing the final report including sampling and primary and secondary data collection, student supervision expectations)
- Experiment design (necessity, features, statistical inference)
- Data and variables (types, differences)
- Scales of measurements (nominal to interval and ratio)
- Class intervals and frequency distributions (frequency, relative frequency, cumulative frequency)
- Central tendency (mean, median, mode) Dispersion, variability and skewness (range, variance, standard deviation etc.)
- Parametric and non parametric tests used in data analysis
Practical: Computer-based Three 3-hour sessions on data manipulation, graphical display, simple statistics, parameteric and non-parametric tests.
5. Forest and Natural Resource Modelling (15 hours)
Course outline
- Introduction (mathematical models, role)
- Classification (different types due to the nature, linear, non-linear)
- Predicting current growth and future yield in forestry
- Model construction (data requirement, data transformation, data partition, modelling steps)
- Equations (empirical and theoretical)
- Regression analysis (linear, non-linear)
- Fitting the equations to data
- Parameter estimation
- Model errors
- Model evaluation (theoretical, qualitative, quantitative)
- Model validation
- Re-calibration of models
Practical: Computer-based Three 3-hour sessions on data manipulation, data partition, observation of data distribution, linear and non-linear model construction.
GIS and Mapping (15 hours)
Course outline
Remote sensing
- Introduction (definition, elements of remote sensing)
- Electromagnetic radiation (EM spectrum, regions, interactions with the atmosphere, radiation - target interactions)
- Passive vs. active sensing
- Image characteristics (spatial resolution, pixel size, scale)
- Satellites and sensors (weather, marine, land)
- Satellite characteristics (orbits and swaths, spectral resolution, temporal resolution)
- Image interpretation and analysis (image enhancement, classification, analysis)
GIS
- Introduction
- Features (point, line, polygon, pixel)
- Data types (vector, raster)
- Activities (overlay, buffering, adding polygons and lines to existing themes)
- Theme table editing
Practical: Computer-based four 3-hour sessions on creating themes, overlaying GPS locations, creating new polygons and lines in existing thems, edting themes, overlaying, buffering using ARCView 3.2.
7. Assignment on Forest Management Plan Preparation (30 hours)
Course outline
- Planning steps
- Evaluation of an existing management plans (which were prepared in the third year)
- Evaluation of an existing management plan prepared at national level
- Preparation of a new plan