Special Issue "Decision Support Approaches in Adaptive Forest Management"
Forest management today can be characterized as an operational environment with a significant amount of ecological, economic and social uncertainties that influence the long-term planning. Decision makers face several challenges in making a choice for the best management strategy, as external factors are often stochastic in nature and the options for adaption are numerous. Rising demands from society regarding a sustainable provision of ecosystems services increase the complexity of forest decision problems as well. The potential for the development of decision support approaches in forest management is facilitated by decision theory, technology, and operations research methods. Demands for decision support are emerging as a result of the challenges and problems facing forest management, and these demands act as stimuli for the research community. As objectives and approaches in forest management change throughout history, the demand for approaches to support planning and decision making will change as well. Given large uncertainties regarding to future environmental conditions, and given evolutions in societal demands, decision support approaches are seen as very promising for facilitating strategic ecosystem management planning processes. Nowadays, Decision Support Systems (DSS) can play a significant role in analysing the needs of adaptation of forest management strategies and can support policy makers in making appropriate decisions. DSS are important to adjust present management to mitigate the impacts of climate change on forests and forest management. At the same time, the influence of adaptive management on ecosystem services and forest multifunctionality is the task of DSS use.
For this Special Issue of Forests, we were able to have a collection of manuscripts from all fields, yet specifically those involving forest management decision support systems, approaches, and models, in order to promote and advance knowledge about decision-making processes used in adaptive and sustainable forest management planning. This special issue provides also papers which resulted from a conference session of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations’ (IUFRO) 125th Anniversary Congress in Freiburg, Germany in 2017. The joint sessions and other meetings (and resulting publications) were appropriate opportunities for knowledge sharing on these important methods and systems for protecting and managing forest ecosystems in the future.
The following papers are part of this Special Issue:
Kašpar, J.; Bettinger, P.; Vacik, H.; Marušák, R.; Garcia-Gonzalo, J. Decision Support Approaches in Adaptive Forest Management. Forests 2018, 9(4), 215; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9040215.
Acosta, M.; Corral, S. Multicriteria Decision Analysis and Participatory Decision Support Systems in Forest Management. Forests 2017, 8(4), 116; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8040116.
Yamada, Y.; Yamaura, Y. Decision Support System for Adaptive Regional-Scale Forest Management by Multiple Decision-Makers. Forests 2017, 8(11), 453; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8110453.
Thompson, M.; Riley, K.; Loeffler, D.; Haas, J. Modeling Fuel Treatment Leverage: Encounter Rates, Risk Reduction, and Suppression Cost Impacts. Forests 2017, 8(12), 469; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8120469.
Bettinger, P.; Boston, K. Forest Planning Heuristics—Current Recommendations and Research Opportunities for s-Metaheuristics. Forests 2017, 8(12), 476; https://doi.org/10.3390/f8120476.
Radl, A.; Lexer, M.; Vacik, H. A Bayesian Belief Network Approach to Predict Damages Caused by Disturbance Agents. Forests 2018, 9(1), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9010015.
Ferreira da Silva, E.; da Silva, G.; Orfanó Figueiredo, E.; Breda Binoti, D.; Ribeiro de Mendonça, A.; Moreira Miquelino Eleto Torres, C.; Macedo Pezzopane, J. Allocation of Storage Yards in Management Plans in the Amazon by Means of Mathematical Programming. Forests 2018, 9(3), 127; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9030127.
