Integration of forest mapping and inventory to support forest management

Forest inventory and forest mapping can be considered as monitoring and assessment applications that respond to different demands. However, the integration of mapping and inventory provides an effective framework for the support of forest management from multiple perspectives: (i) use of thematic maps for stratifying the inventory sample for the purpose of improving the precision of inventory estimates; (ii) coupling remotely sensed and sample inventory data for the purpose of constructing maps of inventoried forest attributes; (iii) coupling remotely sensed data and sample inventory data for the purpose of improving the precision of the inventory estimates; (iv) using inventory data as prior information to support thematic mapping; and (v) using inventory data to correct map areal estimates. This paper aims to provide general considerations on this integration issue in the form of a scientific review and commentary discussion.