Call for papers - Spatial Decision Support for Forest Management and Policy Formulation

Decision support systems for forest management have been steadily evolving since about 1980 in response to growing demand from forest managers for sophisticated analytical systems that can address the complexities of contemporary forest management issues such as adaptive management in the context of concerns for managing for forest ecosystem sustainability, integrity, and resilience while ensuring the provision of ecosystem services. In this same time frame, there has also been a steady shift in emphasis from stand-level to landscape-level decision support systems, in part driven by improved ecological understanding of, and appreciation for, the need to account for patterns and processes in forest management and planning.

Accordingly, the Editors of Forests have commissioned a 2021 Special Issue on spatial decision support systems and their application to state-of-the-art landscape solutions for forest management and policy formulation. In this initial call, manuscript proposals are invited on original research and review articles addressing:

• Contemporary, state-of-the art systems and their application, emphasizing spatial decision support for either forest management or policy formulation;
• Forward-looking (and perhaps more speculative) articles on how to advance spatial decision support technologies for forest management and policy formulation beyond the current state-of-the-art.

Spatial decision support technologies have evolved on numerous pathways, including knowledge-based, probabilistic, and linear programming systems, as well as combinations of these and other technologies, so articles addressing any of these areas are welcome.

More information about the current call and the submission can be found here:

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests/special_issues/decision_support_for...