Agricultural, forestry, horticultural, aquacultural and apicultural services

Tender description

NRW have a need for accurate data, provided through a range of forest surveys throughout the year; we require metrics for evidence (e.g. Audit and certification) and for timber sale purposes. Accuracy of the data collected and confidence in the method used (following UK standards) is key for the downstream use of these metrics, e.g. for sale, valuation or audit purposes. From time-to-time rapid assessment of sites may be required by NRW to map the extent and/or condition of the vegetation present, necessitating the use of aerial surveys to produce high definition images for use in our GIS application. Mapping may be required for e.g. burned areas, windblow, restock sites, tree disease or thinnings, as directed by the surveys manager. Attribute surveys are completed in crops of around 20 years old to validate and update the growing stock data held in our subcompartment database. This survey provides NRW with stocking density information, top height data, species and General Yield Class (GYC) as well as further qualitative data described in the specification, to enable us to make these updates. Detailed information on eTenderWales portal. The annual stocking density assessment (SDA) is carried out as an audit, to ensure adequate numbers of trees are present on each restock site. This assessment is carried out for young crops -up to the age of 5- to ascertain numbers of live trees per hectare, plantable gaps with a subjective assessment of the reasons for the tree losses. The assessment may be carried out on a representative sample of the site through circular field plots or by counting all trees on the site by classifying images that are obtained through remote sensing.