Development of Measuring Device for Diameter at Breast Height of Trees

Abstract

Diameter at breast height (DBH) is the main metric for standing tree growth measurements. Developing fast and efficient measurement devices for measuring DBH is of great values in forest resource surveys. In this paper, we propose a new tree diameter measurement instrument developed using self-reset displacement sensor, which is equipped with a Personal Computer (PC) terminal to enable the measurement, transmission, storage, and analysis of tree diameters in one. The measurements showed an overall bias of 1.44% and an accuracy of 97.35% compared to the caliper, a conventional diameter measuring instrument. The overall bias was −0.52% compared to the diameter tape, and the measurement accuracy was 98.43%. Compared to the conventional devices, the proposed device is small and easy to carry, the measurement efficiency is significantly improved, and the measurement data can be directly derived for analysis. Compared with related electronic measuring instruments, this proposed device has the advantages of small volume, easy operation, large measurement range, and wider applicability.