Sample Design Considerations and Tools
One of the biggest challenges that rangeland researchers and managers face is how to gather the necessary data for decision-making as efficiently and accurately as possible. Often we know how we want to collect the data – meaning what method to use – based on objectives, but where to sample is an altogether different problem that has a large impact on not only efficiency, but in terms of how (or even if) the data can be generalized to other areas.
Information and Considerations
- Sample designs commonly used in rangeland assessment and monitoring
- Inference Space – What is it and why is it important to you?
- Why Stratify? – Why and when should you use stratification in designing sampling schemes for assessment and monitoring.
- When Key Areas aren’t anymore – the case for randomized sample site selection
- Sample Design Using Object-based Image Analysis(OBIA)
- Maintaining Data Integrity
Sample Design Tools Web Seminar
- Video of the July 20, 2010 Jornada Web Seminar on Practical Tools for Multi-scale Sample Design.
- Reference list and links to tools discussed in the July 20, 2010 web seminar.
Sample Design Tools from Jornada Experimental Range
- Multi-scale Sampling Requirements Evaluation Tool – MSSRET
- Jornada Sampling Tools for ArcGIS
- Unequal Probability Sample Analysis Tool Excel based