Rapid assessment of wood density of standing tre with nondestructive methods — A review

Assessment of the quality of standing timber has become a crucial issue in the operational value chain as forestry and the wood processing industry are increasingly under economic pressure to maximize extracted value. A significant effort has been devoted toward developing robust nondestructive evaluation (NDE) technologies capable of predicting the intrinsic wood properties of individual trees, stems, and logs, and assessing the value of stands and forests. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the research results in the use of increment coring, needle penetration, nail withdrawal, and micro-drilling to determine wood density of standing trees.