Publications

Forests provide an array of services ranging from forest products to greenhouse gas absorption. The reliability and appropriateness of management decisions concerning ecosystem services and resources are directly correlated with the accuracy and extent of the available information on forests and related dynamics. Historically, forest resource management activities informed by decision support systems, have largely relied on field measurements, often with sparse geographical, temporal, and ecological coverage. In contrast, remotely-sensed data can provide dense temporal coverage over large areas. Landsat data in particular have spatial and temporal characteristics well-suited to capturing forest changes on the landscape. Since 2008 free and open access to analysis-ready data representing more than 40 years of data in the Landsat archive has created new opportunities for forest monitoring. There is however, a need to link forest information generated from remotely-sensed data to the data input needs of decision support systems. Here, we develop such a linkage between field and remotely-sensed observations to characterize one of the main drivers of forest change: growth. The goal of this research is to produce above-ground biomass (AGB) change estimates that integrate the information of re-measured field plots and that of the Landsat time series. Over a large test area (∼3.3 Mha) in Saskatchewan, Canada, we demonstrate how information from a dense Landsat time series (1984–2012) can be used with a network of field plots to estimate change in AGB over the broad geographical, temporal, and ecological range of these forests. Our approach expands forest growth estimation both spatially and temporally, and results in information layers that are directly ingestible in decision support models. Our results show that trends match between the field plots and the remote-sensing-field-combined estimate, but that the more encompassing spatial estimates give more varied and lower average estimates of AGB change for our study region. We hypothesize that integrating both remotely-sensed information and repeated field measurements covers a wider range of ecological conditions, forest productivity, and forest developmental stages present on the landscape and through time than the field plots alone. The next step in our research is to integrate our findings into the forest resource management decision support tools, with the aim of increasingly spatializing what are usually spatially-referenced models. Our findings highlight emergent synergies between complementary data sources that foster the generation of new information products for forest resources management decision support. © 2016.06.022

Compiling forest policy at national and sub-national levels is a participatory activity that aims to achieve balance between multiple forest-use alternatives. In Finland the effectiveness and acceptability of regional forest programmes has been doubted. The quest for collaboration among stakeholders towards consensus and commitment may be improved via the use of various group learning and multi-criteria decision-making methods. This study reports the phases, results and implications of an extensive action research project, applying soft systems methodology, which aims to enhance regional forest programmes by facilitating increased use of collaborative decision support methods. Stakeholder feedback from demonstration meetings suggested that discussing alternative futures and prioritizing action proposals in a multi-stakeholder group through a simple multi-attribute rating technique are the most promising immediate enhancements. An ex-post evaluation of the suggested "ideal process model" showed that the deliberative nature of regional forest programmes had strengthened and that strategic and regional choices had become more prevalent in Finnish processes. The evaluation further underlined the need for simple, easily adoptable qualitative methods, but results remained ambiguous regarding potentials of quantitative, aggregative methods. Methodological developments cannot alone unlock central problems of the programme process, namely weak political capital and propensity toward status-quo, but the programme organisation is to be redefined as well. © 2016.

Although the importance of monitoring and evaluation of restoration actions is increasingly acknowledged, availability of accurate, quantitative monitoring data is very rare for most restoration areas, particularly for long-established restoration projects. We propose using fuzzy rule-based expert systems to evaluate the degree of success of restoration actions when available information on project results and impacts largely relies on expert-based qualitative assessments and rough estimates of quantitative values. These systems use fuzzy logic to manage the uncertainty present in the data and to integrate qualitative and quantitative information. To illustrate and demonstrate the potential of fuzzy rule-based systems for restoration evaluation, we applied this approach to seven forest restoration projects implemented in Spain between 1897 and 1952, using information compiled in the REACTION database on Mediterranean forest restoration projects. The information available includes both quantitative and expert-based qualitative data, and covers a wide variety of indicators grouped into technical, structural, functional, and socioeconomic criteria. The fuzzy rule-based system translates expert knowledge of restoration specialists and forest managers into a set of simple logic rules that integrate information on individual indicators into more general evaluation criteria. The rule-based approach proposed here can be readily applicable to any kind of restoration project, provided that some information, even if vague and uncertain, is available for a variety of assessment indicators. The evaluation of long-established forest restoration projects implemented in Spain revealed important asymmetries in the degree of restoration success between technical, structural, functional, and socioeconomic criteria. © 2016 Society for Ecological Restoration.

The purpose of this article is Artificial Neural Network (ANN) modeling using ecological and associated factors with forest degradation to predict the degradation of ecosystem, thereby enabling us to assess the environmental impacts of forest projects as an Environmental Decision Support System (EDSS). Results of the Multi-Layer Feed-Forward Network (MLFN), trained for Optimized Forest Degradation Model (OFDM), indicate that the performance of OFDM is more than other degradation models. Changes in forest management activities with higher value in sensitivity analysis help forest managers to decrease OFDM entity and environment impacts. The system is an intelligent EDSS, which allows the decision-maker to model criteria in forest degradation in order to reach and employ the optimal allocation plan. Considering results, multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approaches based on ANN, is an encouraging and robust method for solving MCDA problems. © 2015 University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

The need to integrate non-market ecosystem services into decision-making is widely acknowledged. Despite the exponentially growing body of literature, trade-offs between services are still poorly understood. We conducted a systematic review of published literature in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) on the integration of non-market forest ecosystem services into decision-making. The aim of the review was two-fold: (1) to provide an overview of coverage of biophysical and socio-economic assessments of non-market ecosystem services in relation to forest management; (2) to determine the extent of the integration of biophysical and socio-economic models of these services into decision support models. Our findings reveal the need for wider coverage of non-market ecosystem services and evidence-based modelling of how forest management regimes affect ecosystem services. Furthermore, temporal and spatial modelling of ecosystem impacts remains a challenge. We observed a few examples of multiple non-market services assessments. Integration of non-market services into decision support was performed with either biophysical or socio-economic models, often using proxies and composite indicators. The review reveals that there is scope for more comprehensive and integrated model development, including multiple ecosystem services and appropriate handling of forest management impacts. © 2015 Taylor & Francis.

The paper deals with the application of growth-simulation model SYBILA in conjunction with pulse tomography ARBOTOM for the evaluation of the strategy that was chosen for the management and protection of hardwood floodplain-forest in two study sites in Litovelske Pomoravi Protected Landscape Area (Czech Republic). The results of the simulation-growth model, supplemented by wood tomography showed that the current method of protection and management of the studied floodplain-forest ecosystems would lead to a change in habitat character, which is in conflict with the basic mission of Natura 2000. Simultaneous application of both non-invasive methods enables adjustments to the protected area management plan in accordance with the principles of adaptive ecosystem management. The results of the paper show that the combination of the two relatively new non-invasive methods of ecological research can be a promising support tool for adaptive ecosystem management and protection of forest ecosystems in protected areas. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.

We proposed an application to generate alternative solutions for helping teak log supplier (TLS). This paper focuses on developing an application based on the mathematical model of supplier - manufacturer relationship that developed using Powersim® software. The application is needed because it was really hard to control the model connected to dynamic forest age classes, dynamic demand, the growth of tree that has natural characteristics, and the uncertainty of illegal logging. The TLS application aimed to help user in operating mathematical model in generating alternative solutions by considering the sustainability of teak log supply. The TLS application has to judge and examine some alternative decisions related to crop and/or maintain the teak wood. The TLS application is a network-based decision support systems that incorporate database, model base, analysis tool, and graphical user interface (GUI). The TLS application is capable to determine the decision variables that are conserved forest, planted forests, harvested forest, carbon trade area, and time to attend carbon trading. The application is capable of processing data it can show by the small gap test results between TLS application and mathematical model application.

Planning policies for rapid development in French Guiana will require the conversion of forested areas, thus contributing to global warming. Guiana's policy-makers will need to integrate the preservation of ecosystem services into their planning decisions. The GuyaSim project was conducted to produce more in-depth knowledge on these services (carbon sequestration, biodiversity and soil quality) and to transfer a software application, GuyaSim, to policy-makers to facilitate the use of this knowledge in the development of planning policies. This article presents the characteristics of the application. Guya-Sim is a freeware package of the GIS type designed initially for local authority planners and forestry departments in French Guiana. The application has two main functions: information delivery and support for planning decisions. The information provided includes socio-economic development scenarios, climate scenarios and valuations of ecosystem services. The decision-support component consists of tools for building planning scenarios (land use changes) and forestry scenarios (logging), with information on their environmental impacts. The functionalities of the software are currently limited by the state of knowledge on Guiana's ecosystems. Advances made through current research projects are expected to upgrade the application in the medium term.

Storms are one of the most damaging agents for European forests and can cause huge and long-term economic impacts on the forest sector. Recent events and research haves contributed to a better understanding and management of destructive storms, but public authorities still lack appropriate decision-support tools for evaluating their strategic decisions in the aftermath of a storm. This paper presents a decision support system (DSS) that compares changes in the dynamics of the regional forest-based sector after storm events under various crisis management options. First, the development and implementation of a regional forest model is addressed; then, the potential application of the model-based DSS WIND-STORM is illustrated. The results of simulated scenarios reveal that this DSS type is useful for designing a cost-effective regional strategy for storm-damage management in the context of scarce public resources and that public strategies must encompass the whole forest-based sector to be efficient. Additional benefits of such a DSS is to bring together decision-makers and forest stakeholders for a common objective and therefore to enhance participatory approaches to crisis management. © 2015 by the authors.

This paper presents a system that is under development to support forest fires fighting in Agueda municipality. This system is mainly based on information technology, in contrast to the dynamic which is currently used in this municipality. The system consists of three separate modules, an WebGIS application and two applications for mobile devices (one for the land vehicles and the other to air vehicles). One of the biggest concerns about the system is that all data used is real and updated, but also that the main features of the application are used in real time by the main actors of civil protection: fire department, city hall and Republican National Guard. The implementation of the project is still at an early stage, however the tests performed so far have revealed that the system is viable and is expected to be an effective help in solving the problem of forest fires in the municipality. © 2015 AISTI.