The Forest Inventory and Analysis program (FIA) is the key USDA Forest Service (USFS) program that provides the information needed to assess the status and trends in the environmental quality of the Nation's forests. The goal of the FIA Quality Assurance (QA) program is to provide a framework to assure the production of complete, accurate and unbiased forest information of known quality. Specific Measurement Quality Objectives (MQO) for precision are designed to provide a window of performance that we are striving to achieve for every field measurement. These data quality goals were developed from knowledge of measurement processes in forestry and forest ecology, as well as the program needs of FIA. This report is a national summary and compilation of MQO analyses by regional personnel and the National QA Advisor.

The Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI) is a forest survey on national level which started in 1982 and has already reached its 5th survey cycle (NFI5). It can be characterized as a multisource and multipurpose inventory where information is mainly collected from terrestrial field surveys using permanent sample plots. In addition, data from aerial photography, GIS and forest service questionnaires are also included. The NFI's main objective is to provide statistically reliable and sound figures to stakeholders such as politicians, researchers, ecologists, forest service, timber industry, national and international organizations as well as to international projects such as the Forest Resources Assessment of the United Nations. For Switzerland, NFI results are typically reported on national and regional level. State of the art methods are applied in all fields of data collection which have been proven to be of international interest and have even served as a basis for other European NFIs. The presented methods are applicable to any sample based forest inventory around the globe. In 2001 the Swiss NFI published its methods for the first time. Since then, many methodological changes and improvements have been introduced. This book describes the complete set of methods and revisions since NFI2. It covers various topics ranging from inventory design and statistics to remote sensing, field survey methods and modelling. It also describes data quality concepts and the software framework used for data storage, statistical analysis and result presentation.

The Forest Inventory and Analysis program of the U.S. Forest Service collects vast amounts of filed data to assess the condition and trends the nation's forest resources. A quality assurance program is implemented to assure that data are collected accurately with consistent protocols. A random subset of field plots is chosen to receive an additional, independent measurement by another field crew.

Ozone is an important forest stressor that has been measured at known phytotoxic levels at forest locations across the United States. The ozone bioindicator data of the U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA) are the only source of information available that documents plant injury from air pollution using consistent protocols. This document introduces the FIA ozone indicator and describes the sampling and estimation procedures of the national biomonitoring program. It provides background material on ozone, examples of bioindicator summary statistics, a description of spatial interpolation, and methods to estimate status and change in forested areas with respect to the occurrence of ozone injury from ambient ozone concentrations. The goal is to provide guidance to analysts and researchers on ways to incorporate ozone bioindicator data into reports and research studies.