SAF Geographic Information Systems 3

Question 1

A forest manager wants to combine a soils layer and a slope layer to identify areas suitable for timber harvest. Which GIS overlay operation produces a single output layer with attributes from both inputs?

Accepted Answer

Intersect

Answer

The Intersect operation returns the geometric intersection of two or more layers, retaining attributes from all input layers.

Question 2

What is the purpose of a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) in forest GIS applications?

Accepted Answer

To represent bare-earth surface elevations for terrain analysis

Answer

A DEM represents bare-earth surface elevations and is used to derive slope, aspect, and watershed boundaries for forest planning.

Question 3

When classifying a satellite image into forest cover types, which supervised classification approach requires the analyst to define training samples first?

Accepted Answer

Maximum Likelihood Classification

Answer

Maximum Likelihood Classification is a supervised method requiring analyst-defined training samples to represent each cover class.

Question 4

Which coordinate system uses easting and northing values in meters and divides the world into 60 numbered zones, commonly used in US forestry GPS work?

Accepted Answer

Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)

Answer

UTM divides the world into 60 zones, using metric easting/northing values and is widely adopted for GPS-based field data collection in forestry.

Question 5

In raster GIS analysis, what does 'cell resolution' determine?

Accepted Answer

The geographic area represented by each pixel

Answer

Cell resolution defines the ground area represented by each pixel; a 30m resolution means each cell covers a 30×30 meter area.

(SAF) Society of American Foresters Certification Practice Test

(SAF) Society of American Foresters Certification Practice Test

SAF Geographic Information Systems 3