FORE618-15S2 (C) Semester Two 2015

Wood Quality

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 13 July 2015
End Date: Sunday, 15 November 2015
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 26 July 2015
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 11 October 2015

Description

Biological, physical and chemical properties of wood with a focus on fast-growing short-rotation plantation species and tropical timber

Sustainable societies rely on the utilisation of timber requiring an ever increasing proportion of timber. This can only be achieved by increasing fast-growing short-rotation plantations forestry, especially in tropical countries. The timber from those plantations differs greatly in its properties to that from traditionally harvested old-growth forests, often posing great challenges to the wood processing industry.

Based on a general understanding of wood as a material this course will outline how wood properties are changing with the adoption of short-rotation plantations forestry regimes and explore biological and physiological causes including tropical species.

Learning Outcomes

  • Knowledge
    Students will:
  • know the biological and chemical processes giving rise to the properties of wood.
  • have an advanced understanding the key factors determining wood properties in young trees.
  • be familiar with the timber quality of the internationally most common plantation forest species.

    Skills
    Students will:
  • be able to relate wood properties to the wood quality required by the wood processing industry.
  • be able to take advantage of the opportunities (and be aware of the challenges) caused by the enormous variability of wood properties.

    Application
    Students will:
  • get practical experience in assessing wood properties and draw conclusions from the analysis of the data.
  • research and review current scientific and technical knowledge.
  • present specialised scientific and technical topics in seminar and written formats.

Prerequisites

Subject to approval by the Head of School

Course Coordinator

For further information see School of Forestry Head of Department

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Report Presentation 20%
Report 20%
Lab Report 10%
Final Test 50%

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $988.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Forestry .

All FORE618 Occurrences

  • FORE618-15S2 (C) Semester Two 2015