CoP ForestDSS News September 2015

This is the September 2015 newsletter of the Community of Practice (CoP) on Forest Management Decision Support Systems:

Experiences at Conferences and Workshops

There were several meetings scheduled for this summer, which allowed members of the CoP to meet. The conference "Mountain Forest Management in a Changing World" from 6-9th of July 2015 in Smokovce ( website ) brought together 130 participants including international researchers, international mountain forestry stakeholders and ARANGE consortium partners. The invited keynote speakers Bernhard Wolfslehner, Timo Pukkala and Peter Brang provided a conceptual framework for the conference. In total 48 oral and 31 poster presentations provided thought-provoking insights to the topic, whereas several presentations where related to decision support systems for forest management as well. For more details check out the information on the web.

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 was held from 12-15 of July 2015 in the University of Strathclyde ( website ). There were given three plenary speakers, including the IFORS distinguished lecturer, and 11 keynote/tutorial speakers. Several streams focused on forestry and decision support - for downloading the Conference Programme click here.

The Symposium for Systems Analysis in Forest Resources (SSAFR 2015) was held from 19-21 of August, 2015 in Uppsala, Sweden ( website ).The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Skogforsk hosted more than 100 participants from 22 countries. The keynotes speakers Alan Ager, Charlotte Bengtsson, Sten B. Nilsson and Mikael Rönnqvist gave an overview of the challenges facing the forest sector and in depth analyses of Operations Research modelling issues. More than 65 presentations covering 12 different thematic areas and a number of posters were presented at the symposium. You kind find the book of abstracts here and the link to the presentations made available so far. The CoP assembeled the ForestDSS Council in its annual meeting as a side event to the conference. During the meeting the past, current and future activities were discussed - a short report on the Council meeting and the minutes are online available.

So there were many good opportunities to meet friends and exchange about ongoing research activities in the field of forest management decision support.

New publications

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 can be found in the overview information available on the CoP website and the special issue at the website of the journal.

Also 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: Radomir Balazy from the Forest Research Institute (Poland), Antonios Athanasiadis from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), Oludare Adedeji from the Federal University of  Agriculture, Abeokuta (Nigeria) and Mustapha Ouhimmou from the École de technologie supérieure - VCO Network (Canada), 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 ).

Call for sessions and papers

There are two conferences organized next year, which allow to strengthen collaboration and outreach by the DSS community.

The ICDSST 2016 will be organized by the EURO Working Group on Decision Support Systems (EWG-DSS) in co-operation with University of Plymouth, UK, during the period of 23-25 May 2016. The conference will be hosted by the Plymouth Graduate School of Management & Plymouth Business School, Faculty of Business. The main purpose of the EWG-DSS 2016 International Conference on Decision Support System Technology (ICDSST 2016), with its main theme on “Decision Support Systems Addressing Societal Challenges”, is to attract researchers, developers and specialists in the related areas of decision making, including its methodologies and technologies, as well as application oriented practitioners directed to the implementation of solutions for societal challenges. More information on the call for papers can be found online: https://icdsst2016.wordpress.com/2015/04/01/icdsst-2016/ The EWG-DSS welcomes proposals for organizing a ForestDSS session based on the inputs from members of the CoP at the conference as well. In case that you have interest to organize such a session please get in contact with Harald Vacik, Jose Borges and Ljusk Ola Eriksson.