USDA FOREST SERVICE
DESIGN AND ANALYSIS TOOLKIT FOR INVENTORY AND MONITORING

Design Tool for Inventory and Monitoring (DTIM)

Step 1: Introduction


Welcome to the Design Tool for Inventory and Monitoring (DTIM). The DTIM Wizard will guide you step-by-step through the process of selecting the objectives, questions and metrics for your project. Once you have completed this task, your project will be imported into the full DTIM system for further analysis.

As you work through the screens, note that at any time you can go back and change your responses. And if you make your way completely through the wizard and are unhappy with your selections, know that you can cancel this wizard at any time and start the process anew. So, if this is your first time using this wizard, explore the screens with the knowledge that you can change any of your selections.

On the following screens, you will see this icon . This icon indicates there is more information about this item available. Click on the icon to see that text.

Logging in: If you want to save your project to our server so that you can access it again later, please login before starting the wizard to avoid losing any work.

Guest users:The Get Project Link feature allows you to create a project that you can return to without logging in. In addition, you can share the link with others so that they can access your project. When you use this feature, the link is automatically copied to your clipboard so that you can paste and save the link locally, for future reference and use it in your browser to return to this project.

To load an existing project, press the "Load Project" button below. To begin creating a new project, press the "Start Wizard" button below.

NOTE: For keyboard users working throughout DTIM, pressing CTRL+Q when not focused inside listboxes will shift focus to the navigation buttons.






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Create From Active: Available Objectives   Selected Objectives
Select Objective to Edit:

New Text:

     
Select Question to Edit:

New Question:

New Indicator:

     




     




     


Complete from Currently Selected Metric


Complete from Currently Selected Page




Create From Active: Available Questions   Selected Questions
Which group(s) of Questions would you like to add?






Which group(s) of Questions would you like to remove?

Custom (1 question)
Most Relevant (1 question)
Somewhat Relevant (0 questions)
Least Relevant (3 questions)

Metric
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Row
Column

Metric
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Row
Column

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255 characters remaining
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500 characters remaining


Template Name:

Template Description:

Region:

Forest:

This feature allows you to load or delete existing projects that were created on this account. If you would like to work with shared projects, you will need to access the DTIM Project Manager.





Project Details:



Are you sure you want to delete this project?

Are you sure that you want to Exit? Any unsaved changes will be lost. Press No to return to the system without exiting.

Yes, Exit Application  
Are you sure that you want to return to DATIM Home? Any unsaved changes will be lost. Press No to return to the system without exiting.

Yes, Return to DATIM Home  
You have logged out of DATIM, which has logged you out of DTIM.
You may potentially lose saved data if you proceed as a guest. Would you like to log in before continuing?

  
From the list below, select the ATIM Analysis that you would like to use as your look up for Estimation Attributes.

Please wait for the Analysis list to load.


Sample SizeEstimateErrorAction
1 2 3 Select
3 2 1 Select
4 5 6 Select
9 9 9 Select

Please select an estimate with a total greater than zero.

Use this interface to indicate which questions you would like to associate with your custom objectives.

Custom Objective:

QuestionIndicatorRelevancy
The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. Something
The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. Something
The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. Something
The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. Something
The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. Something
The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. Something
The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. The text of a question. Something


Use this interface to indicate which metrics you would like to associate with your custom questions.

Custom Question:

MetricRelevancy
The text of a metric
The text of a metric
The text of a metric
The text of a metric
The text of a metric
The text of a metric
The text of a metric


A measure of variability. A value from ATIM or entered by you. Use either the ATIM CV or the CV from similar inventories as a starting point. Equation: The standard deviation of the data divided by the mean multiplied by 100.
In order for users to calculate the required sample size for a new inventory and to generate estimates that meet precision requirements, one needs to implement the following equation: Required Sample Size = (CV% * t/E%)^2. 't' is the t value associated with a chosen confidence level and number of plots; CV is the sample standard deviation/sample mean, and E is the chosen allowable error, calculated as (the half width of the confidence interval)/(the estimate). The user selects E and the confidence level (and thus 't' is calculated), and must supply information that can be used to calculate CV.

This CV information can come from previous experience (for example, a user might know that the CV of volume/acre of forest in a particular area is roughly 50%), or alternatively, one can use information from ATIM to calculate CV. Needed information from ATIM includes the estimate, the sampling error %, and the sample size used to calculate the estimate. To calculate the CV from these data, the equation used is (Standard Error * sample size)/estimate, where Standard Error = (estimate * sampling error). Thus with the estimate, sampling error and sample size obtained from ATIM, DTIM can calculate CV, and with this, the user-chosen allowable error and confidence level, calculate the required sample size.
ATIM-derived CV’s are calculated as follows: ATIM Sampling Error (%) X ATIM Estimate/100 = Standard Error. Standard Error X sqrt(sample size) = Standard Deviation. Standard Deviation X 100/Estimate = CV% (e.g., if SD/Estimate = 0.1, that is equivalent to 10% CV).


USDA eAuth Login:
If you are interested in saving your queries, SIT attributes, etc. to the DATIM server, please
request and login with a USDA eAuthentication account. Click here to request a new
USDA eAuthentication account.
You will be prompted to enter your USDA eAuthentication user name and password.
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    Last Updated: February 8, 2024 v18.1.3.24039 381244d
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