Publications

Year of Publication: 2021
Abstract

The Special Issue “Decision Support to Address Multiple Ecosystem Services in Forest Management Planning” includes nine research papers, two review papers, and a white paper presenting highlights of focused research initiatives. The papers provide a comprehensive framework for the analysis and review of advanced Decision Support Systems (DSS), which are multi-criteria decision approaches. Their emphasis is on how these methods and tools may contribute to address the multi-functionality of forests, to support scenario and trade-off analysis of ecosystem services, and to represent interests and behavior of various stakeholders. In the context of forest ecosystem management, a need has arisen to consider various dimensions in the design of the planning process. This calls for the development of appropriate mixes of decision making tools and methods and for its testing with the support of case studies. In this Special Issue, comments on, and implications of, the improvement of innovative decision methods and systems to address the provision of a wide range of ecosystem services and support scenario analysis with the active involvement of stakeholders are presented.

Year of Publication: 2019
Abstract

While very many decision-support (DS) tools (i.e. models and decision support systems (DSS)) have been developed to address forest management problems in Europe, the use of such tools in supporting forest policy processes remains limited. Additionally, while there has been very limited sharing of these tools between European countries, there may be untapped potential for both users and developers in this area. This paper focuses on improving understanding and capacities in the use of forest DS tools for decision making by identifying major forest policy areas, tools available to support them, compatibility of existing tools with the requirements of forest policy areas, potential areas where tools may be shared between countries and factors limiting the use of DS tools in forest policy. Data collection was based on expert interviews. The questionnaire, which comprised a combination of open- and closed-ended questions, was forwarded to experts via email. Expert interviews were completed via Skype with the input of one policy specialist and one modeler/decision support specialist from each country. This study categorized key forest policy areas and the DS tools available to support them. Almost one-third of these forest policy areas were not addressed by any DS tool. The analysis also revealed that DS tools are mainly developed to assist scientists and policy decision-makers to address smaller spatial scales, that they are more orientated to single decision-makers with a predominant focus on market wood products. In addition, through an attribute-matching exercise, the DS tools that could potentially be used in other countries to support similar forest policy areas were also identified. Interviews highlighted some of the reasons why DS tools are seldom used in policy-making processes; these include a lack of trust in the actual use of the tools as well as a perception of inadequacy for the specifics of the real policy process. This research provides a detailed overview of existing DS tools and the forest policy areas that they address. It further provides information on how to address or reduce the gap between DS tools functionalities and requirements from policy makers.

Year of Publication: 2017
Abstract

For forest sustainability and vulnerability assessment, the landscape scale is considered to be more and more relevant as the stand level approaches its known limitations. This review, which describes the main forest landscape simulation tools used in the 20 European case studies of the European project “Future-oriented integrated management of European forest landscapes” (INTEGRAL), gives an update on existing decision support tools to run landscape simulation from Mediterranean to boreal ecosystems. The main growth models and software available in Europe are described, and the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches are discussed. Trades-offs between input efforts and output are illustrated. Recommendations for the selection of a forest landscape simulator are given. The paper concludes by describing the need to have tools that are able to cope with climate change and the need to build more robust indicators for assessment of forest landscape sustainability and vulnerability.

Year of Publication: 2017
Abstract

Land tenure heterogeneity may be an obstacle to forested landscape-level management planning and the provision of ecosystem services. This research focused on the
potential of combining participatory workshops and multiple criteria decision methods (MCDMs) to support the development and negotiation of targets for the supply
of ecosystem services and help design the management plan needed to meet those targets. We describe an application to two forested landscapes with several ownership types in Portugal. The approach encompassed the design of two workshops involving more than 40 stakeholders (forests owners, the forest service, the forest industry, local municipalities and other nongovernmental organizations). The list of ecosystem services included carbon stocks, cork, pine cones, and forest inventory at the end of the planning horizon as well as volume flows from a range of forest species. Results demonstrated the potential of MCDM tools to help individual forest stakeholders set and adjust ecosystem services target levels. They further demonstrated the potential of MCDMs to facilitate the negotiation of these targets by the stakeholders and the reaching of meaningful solutions. Finally, they demonstrated that these tools provide valuable information to combine the negotiations of both targets and behaviors and programs needed to attain them.

Year of Publication: 2017
Abstract

Wildfires impact the outcomes of forest management plans. Addressing that impact is thus critical for effective forest ecosystem management planning. This paper presents research on the use of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) methods that integrate wildfire risk in planning contexts characterized by multiple objectives. Specifically, an a posteriori preference modeling approach is developed that adds wildfire criteria to a set of objectives representing ecosystem services supply values. Wildfire risk criteria are derived from stand-level wildfire occurrence and damage models as well as from the characteristics of neighboring stands that may impact wildfire probability and spread. A forested landscape classified into 1976 stands is used for testing purposes. The management planning criteria include the carbon stock, harvest volumes for three forest species, the volume of the ending inventory, and resistance to wildfire risk indicators. Results show the potential of multiple criteria decision making methods to provide information about trade-offs between wildfire risk and the supply of provisioning (timber) as well as regulatory (carbon) ecosystem services. This information may contribute to the effectiveness of forest ecosystem management planning.

Year of Publication: 2016
Abstract

In recent decades, the focus of forestry Decision Support Systems (DSSs) has expanded to consider the social dimension of forestry and to support participatory decision-making. A large number of models and tools have become available to solve forest management planning problems. The Usefulness of a DSS depends on the range of tools that it incorporates, and many researches have been developed to evaluate DSSs using Usefulness as parameter. The assessment of Usefulness concerns the effectiveness of a DSS. Furthermore, most assessments take into account the degree of Perceived Usefulness, which is considered an indicator of the impact a system has on job performance. The present study focuses on the analysis of final users’ point of view on the Usefulness and Perceived Usefulness of DSSs in participatory forest planning. The research investigates how forest users’ characteristics and context influence their views on the potentialities of DSSs to enhance both the various phases of the participatory planning process (Usefulness) and job performance (Perceived Usefulness). The study is based on quantitative data collected through two questionnaires e-mailed to a sample of 150 DSSs end users. The questionnaires focused on Usefulness and on Perceived Usefulness topics, respectively. Results indicate that special attention must be given to motivating respondents with a clear explanation of the survey objectives when e-mailing questionnaires. Moreover, results show that, in general, respondents consider DSSs useful at each step of the participatory process, despite differences emerge among steps. The research also shows that respondents’ Perceived Usefulness of DSSs was higher before actually engaging with DSSs. Furthermore, the results highlight differences in Perceived Usefulness to improve job performance, suggesting that the use of DSSs may actually improve job performance more than expected. Specifically, results indicate that improving the technical descriptions of methodologies incorporated in a DSS may contribute to increasing the Perceived Usefulness. The information provided within this research contributes to the advancement of knowledge regarding the Usefulness of DSSs as perceived by forest stakeholders, which in turn supports the improvement of DSS architectures and the development of participatory processes in forest management planning.

Year of Publication: 2015
Abstract

While sustainable forestry in Europe is characterized by the provision of a multitude of forest ecosystem services, there exists no comprehensive study that scrutinizes their sensitivity to forest management on a pan-European scale, so far. We compile scenario runs from regionally tailored forest growth models and Decision Support Systems (DSS) from 20 case studies throughout Europe and analyze whether the ecosystem service provision depends on management intensity and other co-variables, comprising regional affiliation, social environment, and tree species composition. The simulation runs provide information about the case-specifically most important ecosystem services in terms of appropriate indicators. We found a strong positive correlation between management intensity and wood production, but only weak correlation with protective and socioeconomic forest functions. Interestingly, depending on the forest region, we found that biodiversity can react in both ways, positively and negatively, to increased management intensity. Thus, it may be in tradeoff or in synergy with wood production and forest resource maintenance. The covariables species composition and social environment are of punctual interest only, while the affiliation to a certain region often makes an important difference in terms of an ecosystem service’s treatment sensitivity.

Year of Publication: 2013
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Year of Publication: 2013
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Year of Publication: 2013
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Publications

Year of Publication: 2021
Abstract

The Special Issue “Decision Support to Address Multiple Ecosystem...

Year of Publication: 2019
Abstract

While very many decision-support (DS) tools (i.e....

Year of Publication: 2017
Abstract

For forest sustainability and vulnerability assessment, the landscape...