Hemeroby study for Austria’s forests

Associated persons Hanns Kirchmeir
Clients Bundesforschungs- und Ausbildungszentrum für Wald, Naturgefahren und Landschaft
Regions Austria
Year 2008

In the 1990s, the degree of naturalness of the Austrian forests was measured for the first time by means of a hemeroby study. Hemeroby means the degree of human influence, which consequently affects the extent to which the forests are still close to nature. The aim of the study is the creation of a long-term inventory of the forests so as to reliably monitor relevant changes in the forestry stock and benefit from this. This study, which had only been undertaken once, is now going to be repeated in cooperation with Prof. Georg Grabherr and the Bundesamt für Wald. The recording of the repeated study is intended to form a suitable basis for future surveys in the sense of a monitoring programme, and will be integrated into the forest inventories which take place every five years. In addition the accuracy of the first survey will be assessed and a change analysis will be carried out, which is now necessary due to the changeover from a one-off study to long-term monitoring.