CoP ForestDSS News July 2015

10
Jul
07.10.2015 |
hvacik
Harald Vacik's picture
We would like to provide you with an update on the recent developments of the Community of Practice (CoP) on Forest Management Decision Support Systems. This is the fifth newsletter of the Community of Practice (CoP) on Forest Management Decision Support Systems:

Conferences and Workshops

There are several meetings scheduled for this summer, which allows members of the CoP to meet physically in a side event of the planned conferences. This week several members will gather at the conference "Mountain Forest Management in a Changing World" from 6th to the 9th of July 2015 in Smokovce ( website ) . The EURO 2015 as the premier European conference for Operational Research and Management Science (ORMS), organised by the European Association of Operational Research Societies in conjunction with the UK OR Society will be held the week after from 12-15 of July 2015 in the University of Strathclyde ( website ). And the Symposium for Systems Analysis in Forest Resources (SSAFR 2015) will be held from August 19 to August 21, 2015 in Uppsala, Sweden ( website ). So there are many good opportunities to meet friends and exchange about ongoing research activities in the field of forest management decision support.

From 13th to 15th of April 2015, a conference was held in Łagów, Poland on decision support systems in forest management. The conference was jointly organized by IUFRO 4.02.05, the Polish Forest Service and the Forest Research Institute under the patronage of the Forest Sciences Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The three-day event was attended by over 90 participants from Austria, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden. During the first day, participants had the opportunity to listen to 12 presentations prepared by scientists and practitioners. During the next two days, the participants took part in a workshop on practical applications of computer based decision support solutions of different countries. For more details please check the website .

New publications

There are eleven papers already published in the Special Issue of Forests that was intended to comprise the research presented at the 24th IUFRO World Congress. The papers provide an overview regarding how Decision Support Systems (DSS) are currently designed and applied for the sustained provision of ecosystem services within the context of climate change. For more details regarding the published papers - please check out the special issue .

The list of publications is steadily growing and allows a good overview about forest DSS related papers. The most recent papers of members of the CoP are always highlighted on the main page of the CoP. You might have an interest to check the list of publications.

New members

In the last months a number of new members joined the Community of Practice and we welcome them all! In the last months a number of new members joined the Community of Practice and we welcome all: Jyrki Kangas from the University of Eastern Finland (Finland), Vicent Kint from the Agency for Nature and Forests (Belgium), Helmer Belbo from the Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute (Norway), Geerten Hengeveld from Wageningen UR (Netherlands), Magnus Fröhling from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany), Marian Dragoi of the Faculty of Forestry of Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava (Romania) and Elaine Mosconi from the Université de Sherbrooke (Canada) or Allan Ager from the USDA forest Service among many others. We are happy about their involvement in the CoP and warmly welcome the new members - Here are only some of the new members with their affiliation highlighted - for more details on all members please refer to the search page

Please check out the website for further announcements via the (news and events pages ) or follow the latest discussions at the (community pages ).

News

  • - The call for applications to scholarships for the doctoral program SUSFOR is still open website
  • - The international Summer School InVEST Models “Mapping and Valuating Ecosystem Services for Better Decision Making” is asking for applications website
  • - The list of DSS descriptions in the wiki is continuously updated, we have now 69 computer based tools described, you are invited to explore its content WIKI