• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
• /
• v.86 no.1
• /
• pp.25-34
• /
• 1997

The optimum global natural vegetation mapping(GNVM) system was selected as a series of the study to estimate potential forest area of the globe. To select the system, three types of GNVM systems which are simple system with Light Climatic Dataset(LCD), altitude-allowed system with LCD and altitude-allowed system with Heavy Climatic Dataset(HCD) were established and compared. The three GNVM systems spherically interpolate such spotty climate data as those observed at weather stations the world over onto $1^{\circ}{\times}1^{\circ}$ grid points, product vegetation type classification, and produce a potential natural vegetation(PNV) map and a PNV area. As a result of comparison with three GNVM systems, altitude-allowed LCD system represented natural vegetation distribution better than other versions. The difference between the simple system versus the one with altitude allowance indicated that the simple version tends to over-represent the warmer climate areas and under-represent cold and hostile climate areas. In the difference between altitude-allowed versions of LCD and HCD, HCD version tended to overestimate moist climate areas and to underestimate dry climate areas.