news

IUFRO NEWS 1, 2022

03
Feb
02.03.2022 |
hvacik
Harald Vacik's picture

We are happy to announce the latest issue of the IUFRO News volume 51 - This issue also covers a variety of topics ranging from decision-making methods in forest ecosystem management, to forest health topics and forest-related challenges of natural and cultural heritage issues. Also a report about the 2021 BIOECOSYS Final Conference can be found, which brought together expertise and experience in forest ecosystem management and economics, to communicate recent findings and to accelerate the transfer of knowledge and best practices to stakeholders and forest actors. The report was provided by José G. Borges (Coordinator of IUFRO WP 4.04.04 and Member of the Conference Committee), Brigite Botequim (Member of the Conference Committee), Barbara Pavani Biju (Member of the Conference Committee) and Harald Vacik, (Coordinator of IUFRO WP 4.03.03) https://www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-4/40000/40400/40404/ and https://www.iufro.org/science/divisions/division-4/40000/40300/40303/

This issue of the IUFRO News can be found here https://www.iufro.org/index.php?id=7347#c33664

and is available for download as a PDF (below) or as a word format here at: https://www.iufro.org/publications/news/electronic-news/

News 02_2021 from IUFRO Division 4

24
Feb
02.24.2021 |
hvacik
Harald Vacik's picture

This second issue of the newsletter of IUFRO Division 4 continues to report on recent and planned activities in Division 4, the accomplishments of our members, and introduces more of our officers. Remember that we can only report the information you provide, so please continue to send information, photos, scholarship and job opportunities, and links related to Division 4.

 
There are a few updates regarding division-wide efforts. First, I will be sending out a poll in very soon to schedule a meeting of all division officers in late February or early March to discuss a number of topics such as communications within the division, portions of the IUFRO Strategic Action Plan that we might want to emphasize, and future meetings. I will send out a report on that meeting to everyone, as well as include it in the next newsletter.
 
One of the topics we will discuss is the possibility of a Division-wide meeting in 2022 or 2023. As I mentioned in the last newsletter, one possibility is the Regional IUFRO Conference in Moscow planned for September 2022, but we will discuss other alternatives as well. Please contact me or any officer if you have thoughts on other options.
 
Finally, we continue to explore ways in which we can include opportunities for virtual participation in IUFRO conferences and meetings in the future. Although immunizations are not occurring as quickly as I had hoped, we are seeing some positive momentum, and in-person meetings will be feasible at some point in the future. Still, I believe that including virtual options will increase participation and allow many more scientists to become involved in IUFRO activities. While providing such options will require support from IUFRO headquarters, we will continue to explore ways in which we can accomplish this at the division level.
 
Over the next few newsletters, we will introduce all of the Division 4 officers to you. A full list of your Division 4 officers can be downloaded for your convenience, or view the full list of units for Division 4.
 
 
 
  • ignacio.barbeito(at)slu.se
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.01.00 Forest Mensuration and Modeling
  • Current position: Researcher, Southern Swedish Forest Research Center, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU. Senior researcher at French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (on leave)
  • Research Interests: quantitative silviculture, forest health, remote sensing, mixed forests
 
 
 
  • Don.Grebner(at)msstate.edu
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.05.00
  • Current Position: George L. Switzer Professor of Forestry and Head, Department of Forestry, Mississippi State University, USA
  • Research Interests: Forest economics and management, forest-based bioenergy, ecosystems services, forest protection
 
 
 
  • vitor.ufpr(at)gmail.com
  • Coordinator, 4.05.03
  • Current Position: Professor, Agricultural and Forest Economics and Policy, Undergraduate and Graduate Programs in Agronomy, Forestry Engineering and Industrial Timber Engineering, Federal University of Paraná
  • Research interests: Agrarian and forest policy; agricultural and forestry economics; productive chains; agroforestry investment analysis 
 
 
 
  • indu.indirabai(at)slu.se
  • Deputy Coordinator 4.02.06
  • Current Position: Post doctoral researcher, Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Umea, Sweden
  • Research Interests: Change estimation of biomass, biophysical parameter estimation in forests both heterogeneous as well as homogeneous forests, remote sensing based forest monitoring and analysis
 
 
 
  • kasparj(at)fld.czu.cz
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.03.03 and 4.04.07
  • Current Position: Assistant professor, Forest Management Department, CZU Prague Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech Republic
  • Research Interests: Forest management and planning, decision support systems, multicriterial and participative management
 
 
 
  • Carina.Keskitalo(at)umu.se
  • Co-Deputy, 4.04.08 and 7.03.015
  • Current Position: Professor of Political Science, Department of Geography, Umeå University, and guest professor, Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå
  • Research Interests: Forest management and policy, climate change adaptation and invasive species management and policy
 
 
 
  • harri.makinen(at)luke.fi
  • Deputy, 4.01.04
  • Current Position: principal scientist, Natural Resources Institute Finland
  • Research Interests: growth and yield, wood formation, wood properties, forest management, dendroecology
 
 
 
  • tylam(at)ntu.edu.tw
  • Deputy, 4.01.03 
  • Current Position: Associate Professor in Forest Mensuration, School of Forestry and Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University, China-Taipei
  • Research Interests: Forest measurement, forest sampling, quantitative silviculture
 
 
 
  • chinsu(at)mail.ncyu.edu.tw
  • Deputy, 4.02.02 
  • Current Position: Professor and Department Head, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, National Chiayi University, Taiwan
  • Research Interests: Optical remote sensing, lidar remote sensing, GIS, forest management and planning, forest dynamics and growth modeling, forest anomaly detection, fuel load evaluation, signal sensing for climate change
 
Upcoming Division 4 Meetings
 
5-8 May 2021
Sofia, Bulgaria
 
4-6 October 2021
Brno, Czech Republic
 
1-3 July 2021
Nancy, France
4.04.07
 
8-11 August 2021
Estes Park, Colorado
4.04.04, 3.04.00
 
14-18 September 2022
Krakow, Poland
4.02.05
Scholarship & Job Opportunities
 
Call for Papers
 
Call for submissions to a special issue of Forests: Spatial Decision Support for Forest Management and Policy Formulation.
 
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 19 September, 2021
Recent Work
 

 

Academic Extension Activities:
  • 2020. Ailson Augusto Loper. Vitor Afonso Hoeflich. Coordination Extension Project: Agroforestry sustainability for rural development. Undergraduate Courses in Forest Engineering and Industrial Timber Engineering. Federal University of Paraná. (UFPR).
  • 2020. Luiz A. C. Lucchesi. Vitor Afonso Hoeflich. Extension Project Coordination: Agronomy & Sustainability. Undergraduate Course in Agronomy. Federal University of Paraná (UFPR).
  • 2020. Zenobio Abel Gouvêa Perelli da Gama e Silva. University Extension Course: Forest Economy focused on the Amazon region. Undergraduate Course in Forest Engineering. Federal University of Acre (UFAC).
 
Publications:
  • Ansolin, R.D. Fernandes, A.P.D.; Timofeiczyk Junior, R.; Hoeflich, V.A.; Bento, M.A.; Silva, S.A. Do forest concessions benefit extractivist communities? The case of the Jamari National Forest. Floresta (online) (Curitiba), v. 50, p. 1297-1306, 2020.
  • Carvalho Filho, M.S.S.; Silva, Z.A.P.G. da G. e. Os Aspectos econômicos da implantação e condução de povoamentos de Eucalyptus spp., no âmbito do Mecanismo de Desenvolvimento Limpo Florestal (MDL-F) no estado do Acre, 2013. Scientia Naturalis, v. 2, p. 778-798, 2020. 
Other Forestry News
 
Webinar: Fatos & Reflexões Florestais: Avaliação e Valoração de Aspectos econômicos do manejo florestal como subsídios à valoração dos recursos florestais.
  • Participants: Anadalvo Juazeiro dos Santos/UFPR; Zenobio Abel Gouvêa Perelli da Gama e Silva/UFAC)
  • Promoters: Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) and the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM).

 

Webinar: Lives and digital contents with content in forestry economics, management and policy issues
  • Advisors: Thiago Rodrigues de Paula/UFPFR; Ailson Augusto Loper/UFPR; Vitor Afonso Hoeflich/UFPR
  • The dissemination of information during the year 2020 indicated more than 16000 accesses
  • Instagram Page

 

Webinar from the International Tree Mortality Network: Tree mortality in Australian ecosystems: past, present and future
  • 22 February, 2021
  • Presented by Professor Belinda Medlyn
  • Abstract: Australia is not only the driest inhabited continent, it also experiences high interannual variability in rainfall, and severe multi-year droughts. Tree death from drought is thus a recurring feature of the Australian landscape. In this talk I will review our current understanding of drought mortality in Australian ecosystems, including the historical context, current field research on the extent and mechanisms of drought dieback and recovery, and the development of models to predict future drought mortality risk.
  • Register here
 
 
 
The IUFRO Working Party 4.02.01 Resource Data in the Tropics has been redirected towards the issue of rescuing legacy or historical tropical forest datasets that are still on paper or in older digital formats. They also want to help develop appropriate metadata standards and policy for equitable use of these data.
 
These legacy datasets are invaluable for understanding how tropical forests, biodiversity, and carbon storage change through time, including the cumulative impacts of changes in land use and climate. Historical data can also help instruct current and future forest management.
 
All are welcome to participate who are interested in this effort. Please contact tropfordata(at)gmail.com for more information.

EWG-DSS Newsletter

It is our pleasure to share with you the recent news from the EWG-DSS community, by looking back some of the key achievements we have succeeded despite all the unforeseen challenges. In this Newsletter the successful achievements of the past year of the EWG-DSS community are summarized, together with the information from members about projects and publications.

Please find Newsletter on the following link.

hvacik's news >>

News from IUFRO Division 4

06
Aug
08.06.2020 |
hvacik
Harald Vacik's picture

This is the first issue of the IUFRO Division 4 newsletter - four issues will be published annually to keep everyone updated on Research Group and Working Party activities – as well as IUFRO-wide news of the Division 4. The newsletter also will provide information on upcoming meetings, pertinent special issues, and job opportunities for professionals and graduate students. We hope that this will keep everyone connected throughout the year and encourage more communication and collaboration between Division 4 units. Another feature you will notice is an introduction to Division 4 officers. Because we have more than 100 officers, we are introducing only 15 officers in each newsletter, alphabetically. We also will include an Excel spreadsheet with contact information for all officers in each newsletter.

Of course, we will need you and your units to provide information for the newsletter to be successful! Ms. Kristy Keel-Blackmon (kristyak@utk.edu), communications specialist in my department, has agreed to create our newsletters. Please send any information, photos, and links to Kristy so that she can include them in future newsletters.

There are two topics other than the newsletter I want to bring to your attention. First, the Division and Research Group officers have begun discussing a Division-wide meeting in 2022. We are in the preliminary stages and will keep you updated as we move forward.

Related to the Division-wide meeting, as well as all future meetings, we also are exploring the feasibility of including options for online participation at future Division 4 meetings. While currently necessitated by the pandemic, continuing to provide an online option will allow for more participation by those who may be limited by travel budgets, family obligations, or other constraints. There still is a lot of work to do to determine the logistics of conducting effective hybrid conferences and the optimal technology needed to do this, but including online participants should be a good opportunity to increase participation.

Please feel free to email me (dhodges2@utk.edu) or your unit officers if you have any suggestions regarding the newsletter, future meetings, or any other topics related to IUFRO or Division 4. I look forward to working with all members of Division 4 in the future!

Thank you,

Don Hodges
 

Meet Your Division 4 Officers

Over the next few newsletters, we will introduce all of the Division 4 officers to you. A full list of your Division 4 officers can be downloaded for your convenience, or view the full list of units for Division 4.
 

 
 
  • krzysztof.adamowicz(at)up.poznan.pl
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.05.04
  • Current Position: Professor, Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland
  • Research Interests: Economics of forestry, wood markets, forestry management, forest value, prediction, climate change

 
 
  • francisco.aguilar(at)slu.se
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.05.03
  • Current Position: Professor, Department of Forest Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
  • Research Interests: forest economics, ecosystem services, forest certification, wood energy

 
 
  • smb(at)isa.ulisboa.pt
  • Coordinator, 4.02.07
  • Current Position: Professor in forest inventory and forest models, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Portugal
  • Research interests: forest inventory, forest models and simulators, forest management and planning

 
 
  • pbettinger(at)warnell.uga.edu
  • Coordinator, 4.04.00
  • Current Position: Hargreaves Distinguished Professor in Forest Management, School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA
  • Research interests: Forest management, forest planning, forest operations, GIS, GPS

 
 
  • jboehmer(at)wzw.tum.de
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.02.01
  • Current Position: Professor of Biogeography, School of Geography, Earth Science and Environment; University of the South Pacific (USP), Fiji
  • Research Interests: long-term forest dynamics, tropical island forest dieback, biological invasions

 
 
  • joseborges(at)isa.ulisboa.pt
  • Coordinator, 4.04.04
  • Current position: Associate Professor at the School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Portugal and Coordinator of its Forest Research Centre
  • Research interests: forest management planning, ecosystem services, multicriteria methods, wildfire risk management, decision support systems

 
 
  • fbravo(at)pvs.uva.es
  • Coordinator, 4.01.02 and 4.02.03
  • Current Position: Professor in Forest Management, School of Agricultural, Food Technology and Forestry, University of Valladolid, Palencia, Spain
  • Research interests: quantitative silviculture, modelling, forest stand dynamic, growth and yield, forest resilience, resistance and recovery, forest managements

 
 
  • marielle.brunette(at)inrae.fr
  • Deputy Coordinator, 04.04.07
  • Current position: researcher at INRAE (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment), Nancy, France
  • Research interests: forest economics, risk and uncertainty, forest insurance, forest adaptation

 
 
  • gherardo.chirici(at)unifi.it
  • Coordinator, 4.02.00
  • Current Position: Full Professor of Forest Inventory and remote sensing, Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy
  • Research interests: Combination of forest inventory and multisource remote sensing, data scientist, modelling, biodiversity

 
 
  • lduncans(at)umd.edu
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.02.06
  • Current position: Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, College Park
  • Research interests:satellite remove sensing of forest structure and biomass, forest conservation and biodiversity, lidar

 
 
  • bianca.eskelson(at)ubc.ca
  • Division 4 Deputy Coordinator and Coordinator, 4.01.00
  • Current Position: Associate Professor in Forest Biometrics, Department of Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia, Canada
  • Research Interests: Forest biometrics & modelling, disturbance & management effects, stand dynamics

 
 
  • caf(at)nibio.no
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.02.07
  • Current Position: Researcher at NIBIO, Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Norway
  • Research Interests: Forest growth and yield modelling, large-scale scenario simulations

 
 
  • mathieu.fortin(at)canada.ca
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.01.02
  • Current Position: Research Scientist, Canadian Wood Fibre Centre, Ottawa Canada
  • Research interests: Growth modelling, Monte Carlo simulation, uncertainty assessment

 
 
  • dhodges2(at)utk.edu
  • Division 4 Coordinator
  • Current Position: James R. Cox Professor and Head, Department of Forestry, Wildlife and Fisheries, University of Tennessee, USA
  • Research Interests: forest economics and finance, ecosystem services, forest management

 
 
  • kalle.karttunen(at)mtk.fi
  • Deputy Coordinator, 4.05.00
  • Current Position: Research Manager, The Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners (MTK)
  • Research Interests: forest economics, forest management, forest-based bioenergy, wood harvesting and supply chain
 

 

Upcoming Division 4 Meetings
 

6-9 October 2020

Bolzano, Italy and Online

4.05.00, 3.08.00, T44

 

16-17 October 2020

Brasov, Romania

4.03.00, 4.03.02

 

5-7 May 2021

Future Sustainable Development of the Forest-Based and Wood Sectors

Brno, Czech Republic

4.05.00

 

5-8 May 2021

Sofia, Bulgaria

 

1-3 July 2021

Nancy, France

4.04.07

 

8-11 August 2021

Estes Park, Colorado

4.04.04, 3.04.00

 

14-18 September 2022

Krakow, Poland

4.02.05
 

Recent Work

 
 

Pete Bettinger
 
 
 

Vitor Afonso Hoeflich
 
 

 

 

Other Forestry News
 

 

Finland’s Natural Resource Center has conducted a forest owner study every 10 years, and the most recent report, Finnish Forest Owner 2020, was just published. The most interesting finding is that the goals of forest owners have changed in a surprising direction in the 21st century: intangible goals do not seem to have strengthened. The number of forest owners reporting both multi-purpose and recreational uses has decreased, and the number of those emphasizing security and income has clearly increased. Thus, forestry is increasingly seen as a livelihood and a source of income. In times of economic uncertainty, this view is likely to gain traction.
 
 

Visit and learn about the Forest Relationship Project which studies what kind of relations people have with forests.

 
 

The 4.04.04 Unit will sponsor a journal special issue in Frontiers: Wildfire Management and Decision Support.

 
 

CoP ForestDSS News September 2019

10
Sep
09.10.2019 |
hvacik
Harald Vacik's picture

This is the September 2019 newsletter of the Community of Practice (CoP) on Forest Management Decision Support Systems sent to all registered members. We would like to update you on the recent developments and future activities of the CoP:

We will organize the next annual ForestDSS Council meeting as a side event of the IUFRO World Congress " Forest Research and Cooperation for Sustainable Development" that takes place in Curitiba, Brazil from 27th September - 5th of October 2019. The IUFRO World Congress will bring together international experts in the area of forest research and there will be special sessions organized in the field of decision support for forest management. The ForestDSS Council is constituted of those DSS experts that participate in the annual meeting of the CoP. It is a temporary group which acts as a review panel for the activity of the whole CoP. Please consider your participation in this side event, when you are travelling to Curitiba. We would like to use this opportunity to have an exchange about the ongoing research and dissemination activities. The meeting will take place on Tuesday the 1st of October 2019 from 18:30-19:20 in the room R10 - WING 2 as part of the business meeting of the IUFRO group 4.03.00 (Information, modeling and statistics).

Jan Kaspar - who was nominated as the new coordinator of the CoP during the last Council meeting in Prague according to the MoU of the CoP - will organize the next Council meeting in Curitiba. Harald Vacik (former coordinator of the CoP) will support the future activities of the CoP as vice-coordinator.

Other DSS related conferences:

Several conferences were organized this year, which allowed strengthening collaboration and outreaching by the DSS community. There are already the call for papers out for conferences scheduled in 2020 (e.g. ICDSST2020, EURO Working Group Practice of OR) - There is also a International Winter School on Big Data scheduled for next year - so please consider to participate in the conferences and track information about the latest call for abstracts and get to know about interesting conferences at the news and events page of the CoP. You can get the latest information via the RSS feed directly to your mail box or you follow us via twitter @dss_forest as well.

Special Issues in journals

The special issue of the Journal Forests (ISSN 1999-4907) belonging to the section "Forest Ecology and Management" has been organized by Jan Kašpar, Róbert Marušák, Harald Vacik and Pete Bettinger regarding the topic "Forest Landscape Management: From Data to Decision". Eight papers have been already published and some are still in the review process. Read more....
 
Also the IUFRO Units 4.04.04—Sustainable Forest Management Scheduling, IUFRO Unit 4.03—Informatics, Modelling, and Statistics and IUFRO Unit 4.03.03. Information management and information technologies have been sponsoring together with the COP ForestDSS a Special Issue of the Journal Forests on "Decision Support to Address Multiple Ecosystem Services in Forest Management Planning". The SI has been organized by Jose G Borges, Harald Vacik, Keith M. Reynolds, Luiz Carlos Rodriguez and Emin Z. Başkent. The deadline for manuscript submissions is: 20 October 2019, so far 6 papers have been already published and some are still pending Read more....
 
We have also highlithed the outcomes of the last special issue “Models and tools for integrated forest management and forest policy analysis” which resulted from the initiative of the Working Group 2 “Forestry modelling for integrated policy analysis” of COST Action FP1207 “Orchestrating forest-related policy analysis in Europe (ORCHESTRA)”. . We were able to collect 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. Read more....

New publications and tools

We have updated the list of publications related to Forest DSS on the Community portal including the most recent publications in the field of decision support. This is a valuable source for conducting reviews in the field of Forest Management Decision Support Systems. You are welcome to screen the list of publications and add you most recent paper as well!

We have included a review about the project LANDSUPPORT which aims at building up a web-based smart geoSpatial Decision Support System (S-DSS).  LANDSUPPORT shall provide a set of operational tools devoted to: i) support sustainable agriculture and forestry; ii) evaluate trade-off between land uses; iii) contribute to implementation, impact and delivery of about 20 European land policies and selected 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals including climate change resilience goals. Read more....

You might be also interested to learn about Biowood - a large project that focuses on (i) quantifying the current woody biomass feedstock supply in Flanders, (ii) predicting the future woody biomass in Flanders using the Sim4Tree decision support system (DSS), (iii) creating added value for wood flows based on a lignin-first process opening up opportunities for using the new derived molecules in the agro-industry and (iv) evaluating the sustainability of the lignin-first derived products including optimising locations of the biorefineries using the MooV DSS. Read more....

In case that you would like to share your activties and your DSS related projects with the community, please provide us with a short notice, so that we are able to include the information in the portal and in the next newsletter. Please check out the website for further announcements via the news and events pages or follow the latest discussions at the community pages.

In the last months a number of new members joined the Community of Practice and we welcome them all: Ilié Storms from KU Leuven, Gina Marano from the CRISP Research Center, Anders Lundholm from the University College Dublin, or Carola Paul from the University of Goettingen among many others. We are happy about their involvement in the CoP and warmly welcome the new members - for a full list of all CoP members please consult the Search on the Website.

 

 

Forest DSS Council Meeting 2018

21
Sep
09.21.2018 |
hvacik
Harald Vacik's picture

The annual ForestDSS Council meeting took place on the 18th of September 2018 as a side event of the IUFRO Congress Landscape Management: From Data to Decision in Prague, Czech Republic. Besides the DSS presentations during the IUFRO congress there were intensive discussions from a motivated group of DSS experts how to continue with the CoP in the future. The ForestDSS Council is constituted of those DSS experts that participate in the annual meeting of the CoP and they act as a review panel for the activity of the whole CoP. The agenda in Prague focused on the review of the activities during the last year 09/2017 - 09/2018, a discussion about the future activities of the CoP and the coordination.

A short presentation about the activities in the last year can be found in the report of the coordinator (see attached presentation).

Some selected future activies of the members of the CoP are:

  • screen the options for starting a YOUTube Channel on Forest Decision Support relevant topics and offering courses and introductory lectures
  • organize a session at the next IUFRO world congress jointly with other groups
  • resubmitting the COST proposal iLand focusing on Decision Support for Landscape Management

The coordinator Harald Vacik and vice-coordinator Ljusk-Ola Eriksson have proposed a new coordination of the CoP. The CoP Council has agreed upon the proposed candidate Jan Kaspar, who was elected as a new coordinator of the Community of Practice for Forest Management Decision Support Systems.  The former coordinator Harald Vacik will act as a vice-coordinator and Ljusk-Ola Eriksson agreed to continuesly support the activities with his advices. We congratulate the new coordinator and wish him much success during the next years in steering the whole group.

CoP ForestDSS News September 2018

04
Sep
09.04.2018 |
hvacik
Harald Vacik's picture

This is the September 2018 newsletter of the Community of Practice (CoP) on Forest Management Decision Support Systems sent to all registered members. We would like to update you on the recent developments and future activities of the CoP:

We will organize the next annual ForestDSS Council meeting as a side event of the IUFRO Congress "Landscape Management: From Data to Decision" that takes place in Prague, Czech Republic 17th-19th of September 2018. The ForestDSS Council is constituted of those DSS experts that participate in the annual meeting of the CoP. It is a temporary group which acts as a review panel for the activity of the whole CoP. Please consider your participation in this side event, when you are travelling to Prague. The location and time for the meeting will be announced via the website.

 

DSS related conferences:

Several conferences were organized this year, which allowed strengthening collaboration and outreaching by the DSS community. In the conferences the members of the CoP were actively engaged as session organizers or co-organizers of the conference, which allowed to meet many colleagues:

The ICDSST - PROMETHEE DAYS 2018 focused on the role, the qualities, the models and methods offered by sustainable data-driven and evidence based Decision Support. The ICDSST in 2018 was jointly organized by the EURO Working Group on Decision Support Systems (EWG-DSS) and the PROMETHEE DAYS group during 22-25 May 2018. The book of abstracts provides a nice overview about the presentations given. Read more ....

The international conference "COMMUNICATING RISKS IN Decision Support Systems: from basic research to advance decision support tools" was held from 6 and 7th June in Solsona and 8th of June Barcelona. It focused on models, methods and decision support systems that are used by public administrators, forest owners and industry for forest management planning in a context of risk and uncertainty. The conference was co-financed by the SuFoRun international R&D project (http://suforun.ctfc.cat/) and was organized by Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC, Spain) and IUFRO unit 4.04.07. The IUFRO report provides a comprehensive overview about the outcomes of the conference - Read more …

There are already the call for papers out for conferences scheduled in 2019 (e.g. ICDSST2019, IUFRO2019) - please consider to participate in the conferences and track information about the latest call for abstracts and get to know about interesting conferences at the news and events page of the CoP. You can get the latest information via the RSS feed directly to your mail box or you follow us via twitter @dss_forest as well.

 

Call for papers in journals

A special issue of the Journal Forests (ISSN 1999-4907) belonging to the section "Forest Ecology and Management" is organized by Jan Kašpar, Róbert Marušák, Harald Vacik and Pete Bettinger regarding the topic "Forest Landscape Management: From Data to Decision". The deadline for manuscript submissions is 15 March 2019. Read more....
 
The IUFRO Units 4.04.04—Sustainable Forest Management Scheduling, IUFRO Unit 4.03—Informatics, Modelling, and Statistics and IUFRO Unit 4.03.03. Information management and information technologies are sponsoring together with the COP ForestDSS a Special Issue of the Journal Forests on "Decision Support to Address Multiple Ecosystem Services in Forest Management Planning". The SI is organized by Jose G Borges, Harald Vacik, Keith M. Reynolds, Luiz Carlos Rodriguez and Emin Z. Başkent. The deadline for manuscript submissions is: 20 October 2019 Read more....

New publications and tools

We have updated the list of publications related to Forest DSS on the Community portal including the most recent publications in the field of decision support. This is a valuable source for conducting reviews in the field of Forest Management Decision Support Systems. You are welcome to screen the list of publications and add you most recent paper as well!

We have also highlithed the outcomes of the last special issue resulted from the 125th IUFRO Anniversary Congress in Freiburg, Germany in 2017. We were able to collect 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. Read more....

We have included a review about i-Tree in the CoP portal, which is a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the Forest Service of the USDA that provides urban and rural forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. The LandsCare project has launched an app generator which enables landscape managers to share information on natural spaces with visitors, directly to their mobiles. In case that you would like to share your activties and your DSS related projects with the community, please provide us with a short notice, so that we are able to include the information in the portal and in the next newsletter. Please check out the website for further announcements via the news and events pages or follow the latest discussions at the community pages.

 

 

CoP ForestDSS News March 2018

21
Mar
03.21.2018 |
hvacik
Harald Vacik's picture

This is the March 2018 newsletter of the Community of Practice (CoP) on Forest Management Decision Support Systems sent to all registered members. We would like to update you on the recent developments in the CoP:

The minutes of the annual ForestDSS Council meeting which has taken place on the 18th of September 2017 as a side event of the 125th IUFRO Anniversary Congress in Freiburg, Germany are available online. Besides the DSS sessions during the IUFRO congress there were intensive discussions among the DSS experts how to continue with the CoP in the next years. As a consequence of the discussions we have decided to launch the DSS related news also via Twitter - so you are welcome to follow us via @dss_forest as well ! Read more ....

Opportunity to participate in DSS related conferences:

There are several conferences organized this year, which allow strengthening collaboration and outreaching by the DSS community. In the conferences the members of the CoP are actively engaged as session organizers or co-organizers of the conference, which allows you to meet colleagues or organize side events:

The ICDSST - PROMETHEE DAYS 2018 will focus on the role, the qualities, the models and methods offered by sustainable data-driven and evidence based Decision Support. The ICDSST in 2018 is jointly organized by the EURO Working Group on Decision Support Systems (EWG-DSS) and the PROMETHEE DAYS group. The conference will be hosted by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research during 22-25 May 2018. Read more ....

The international conference "COMMUNICATING RISKS IN Decision Support Systems: from basic research to advance decision support tools" is held from 6 and 7th June in Solsona and 8th of June Barcelona. It will focus on the presentation of models, methods and decision support systems that may be used by public administrators, forest owners and industry for forest management planning in a context of risk and uncertainty. This conference is co-financed by the SuFoRun international R&D project (http://suforun.ctfc.cat/) and is organized by Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya (CTFC, Spain) and IUFRO unit 4.04.07. Read more …

The open conference of the IFIP WG 8.3 on Decision Support Systems (IFIP DSS 2018) is held during 13-15 June 2018 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The theme of the conference is “DSS Research Delivering High Impacts to Business and Society” and provides an overview about Decision Support Methodologies, Systems & Software, Decision Making, Behaviours, Data & Decision Models, Business Analytics, Intelligence & Knowledge Discovery as well as Case Studies and Applications of Decision Support. Dr. Arkady Zaslavsky from the Commonwealth Science Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is one of the keynote speakers. Read more …

There are many more conferences scheduled for 2018 - you are able to track the latest call for abstracts and get to know about interesting conferences at the news and events page of the CoP.

Opportunity to participate summer schools:

There are several summer schools organized during the summer months, which have a special focus on the development and application of forest management tools and techniques. Take the opportunity to participate in the trainings:

  • You invited to participate in the Summer School on MCDA/MCDM to be held in Chania, Greece, from 23 July - 3 August, 2018. The summer school targets towards PhD students who are interested in theoretical and applied aspects of MCDA/M and seek to get an in-depth undestanding of the field and related topics. .Read more...
  • A two-days practical workshop will be held at Umeå from 20-21.08.2018 where beginners and more advanced modellers in the realm of agent/individual-based modelling mix and meet. The objective of the workshop is to share knowledge, experience and tips and tricks in this important field of modelling and to advance our understanding of how to apply this concept to various fields of ecology.. Read more...

Call for papers in journals

The International Journal of Communications, Network and System Sciences has launched a special issue on the topic Management Information Systems. Topics can cover papers on Software development, Information management models, Analysis of information management processes or Information technology management Submission Deadline is 29th March 2018. Read more…

The Journal Forests will publish a special issue ""Integrating Ecosystem Services into Valuation and Forest Management Decisions" . Besides studies that promote the integration of different ecosystem services into forest management decision making processes through quantitative models, also mathematical programming with single and multiple criteria in deterministic and non-deterministic scenarios are welcomed. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 Juni 2018. Read more....

New publications and tools

The working group members Isabella De Meo and Chiara Torresan have intensively worked on an updated of the list of publications related to Forest DSS on the Community portal. More than 275 references are now listed, including the most recent publications in the field of decision support. This is a valuable source for conducting reviews in the field of Forest Management Decision Support Systems. You are welcome to screen the list of publications and add you most recent paper as well!

In case that you would like to share your activties and your DSS related projects with the community, please provide us with a short notice, so that we are able to include the information in the portal and in the next newsletter. Decision Support in AFORCLIMATE and Decision support for protected area managers - FORADAPT provide some examples on interesting decision support projects.  Please check out the website for further announcements via the news and events pages or follow the latest discussions at the community pages.

 

CoP ForestDSS News April 2017

06
Apr
04.06.2017 |
hvacik
Harald Vacik's picture

This is the April 2017 newsletter of the Community of Practice (CoP) on Forest Management Decision Support Systems sent to all registered members. We would like to update you on the recent developments in the CoP:

Opportunity to participate in DSS related conferences:

There are several conferences organized this year, which allow strengthening collaboration and outreaching by the DSS community. In the conferences the members of the CoP are actively engaged as session organizers or co-organizers of the conference, which allow also side meetings to be organized:

The ICDSST-2017 is organized by the  EWG-DSS – EURO Working Group on Decision Support Systems from 29-31.05.2017 in Namur Belgium. The ICDSST-2017 on “Data, Information and Knowledge Visualisation in Decision Making” will study the role, the qualities, the models and methods offered by visualisation of data, information and knowledge in the process of decision and the mechanisms of decision support.  The special session ‘The use of DSS in forest resources management and policy analysis’ aims at easy to use decision support tools for the complex interactions in spatial and temporal contexts between society and forest resource management. For more information please visit ICDSST 2017 official website.
Read more …

The Symposium on Systems Analysis in Forest Resources (SSAFR 2017) will take place near Seattle, in Washington, US from August 27-31, 2017.  The 2017 SSAFR is going to be unique in a way as it will bring together two traditionally disconnected disciplines both working on forest decision support systems: the remote sensing/geospatial informatics community and operations researchers. The high number of submissions and keynotes will represent examples from the broad area of systems analysis models and techniques useful for analyzing problems associated with the management of forest resources. For more information please check out the website.
Read more…

The 125th IUFRO Anniversary Congress will take place in Freiburg, Germany 19th-22nd of September 2017. The session “Decision Support Approaches in Adaptive Forest Management” is jointly organised by IUFRO units 4.04.00, 4.04.06 and 4.03.03 and the CoP ForestDSS has received a high number of submissions as part of the All Division 4 Meeting. We would like to explore the different ways how adaptive forest management can be implemented and supported by DSS. Due to the high interest in the IUFRO congress only up to 2100 participants might be accepted, therefore we encourage the presenters to register for the congress by the "early-bird" deadline of 1 June 2017 at http://iufro2017.com/registration/.
Read more…

"The Green-Blue Nexus" conference oragnized in Halle, Germany from 24 - 29 September 2017 addresses the conflict between provisioning services (the "Green"), such as timber / biomass and forest by-products (food and fodder) and regulating services (the "Blue") (e.g., cleaning drinking water, flood and erosion regulation) in relation to other impacts on biodiversity and the supporting structures and key ecological processes that enable the supply of these services. You will learn right after the IUFRO congress how new types of data and methods help develop better models of landscape dynamics that support decision makers in identifying the best set of adaptation pathways to global changes. You can also enjoy a nice training course on landscape pattern analysis by Peter Vogt, EC. There are still options to submit session proposal and abstracts. Read more....

There are many more conferences scheduled for 2017 - you are able to track the latest call for abstracts and get to know about interesting conferences at the news and events page of the CoP.

Opportunity to participate summer schools:

There are several summer schools organized during the summer months, which have a special focus on the development and application of forest management tools and techniques. Take the opportunity to participate in the trainings:

  • You invited to participate to the workshop on Decision Making organised in Toulouse, Manufacture des Tabacs, Amphi MBIII, April 24th - 26th 2017. The program is organized around four thematic sessions: Tools for Group Decision Making, Multicriteria Decision Making under uncertainty, Computational Social Choice, Argued Decision.Read more...
  • The Toulouse e-Democracy Summer School (TeSS) is organized jointly with CIMI labex http://www.cimi.univ-toulouse.fr and Policy Analitycs GDR http://www.lamsade.dauphine.fr/gdr3720 from June 27th 2017 – July 4th 2017. Several topics ranging from Voting procedures, Group Decision Support Systems, Collaborative Tools, Negotiation, Argumentation and Deliberation will be covered. Applications are still possible. Read more...
  • An international summer school on Forest Planning and Management: Training in New Tools and Techniques organised by EFIATLANTIC and hosted by Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) will be held in Waterford, Ireland from 19 – 23rd June 2017. The focus of the summer school will be on providing background information, demonstrations and training in the use of the latest tools and techniques for assisting modern forestry professionals. Read more ....
  • The Summer school 'land-system science for analysing dynamic landscapes: data, tools and models’, will take place from August 27 to September 1, 2017 in Filzbach, Switzerland. Students will develop an integrated understanding of land system science and landscape assessment. Read more....
  • The training school ‘Modelling landscape invasion by non-native tress: challenges and applications’ will take place at CIBIO/InBIO (Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources) at the Campus Agrário Vairão, Universidade do Porto, Portugal between September 25th – 29th 2017. The training school is organised and financed by COST Action FP1403 (NNEXT) 'Non-native tree species for European forests - Experiences, Risks and Opportunities'. Read more...

Call for papers in journals

The Journal of Software Engineering and Applications (JSEA, ISSN Online: 1945-3124), a peer-reviewed open-access journal, is seeking papers for the upcoming special issue on "Decision Support Systems". Researchers are invited to submit original research papers to this issue through the Paper Submission System. Submission Deadline is April 2017.
Read more…

The Journal Forests will publish a special issue "Decision Support Approaches in Adaptive Forest Management" which will cover selected Papers from the IUFRO 125th Anniversary Congress. For this Special Issue of Forests, we encourage original 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. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2017.
Read more....

New publications and tools

Jason Papathanasiou, Nikolaos Ploskas and Isabelle Linden have recently published a new book on case studies of real world DSS applications. The book highlights best practices in each stage of a decision support system’s life cycle, from the initial requirements analysis and design phases to the final stages of the project. Read more...

As a result of several national and international research projects undergoing in these areas, the ForChange group has been developing several tools that aim to support forest management. The Forchange Tools website was created with the purpose of facilitating the access of all users to the existing tools allowing downloading its latest versions. Read more...

We have also updated the list of publications related to Forest DSS on the Community portal. Around 200 references are now listed, including the most recent publications from the field.

In case that you would like to share your activties and your DSS related projects with the community, please provide us with a short notice, so that we are able to include the information in the portal and the next newsletter. Please check out the website for further announcements via the news and events pages or follow the latest discussions at the community pages.

 

CoP ForestDSS News October 2016

27
Oct
10.27.2016 |
hvacik
Harald Vacik's picture

This is the October 2016 newsletter of the Community of Practice (CoP) on Forest Management Decision Support Systems sent to all registered members. We would like to update you on the recent developments in the CoP:

Opportunity to participate in DSS related conferences:

There are several conferences organized next year, which allow strengthening collaboration and outreaching by the DSS community. In the conferences the members of the CoP are actively engaged as session organizers or co-organizers of the conference, which allow also side meetings to be organized:

The ICDSST-2017 is organized by the  EWG-DSS – EURO Working Group on Decision Support Systems and sponsored by EURO – the Association of European Operational Research Societies. The ICDSST-2017 on “Data, Information and Knowledge Visualisation in Decision Making” will study the role, the qualities, the models and methods offered by visualisation of data, information and knowledge in the process of decision and the mechanisms of decision support.  The special session ‘The use of DSS in forest resources management and policy analysis’ aims at easy to use decision support tools for the complex interactions in spatial and temporal contexts between society and forest resource management. The deadline for full paper submission to ICDSST 2017 is 30 November 2016, in order for your submission to be considered for publication by Springer in the series of Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP). For detailed information about submissions, please visit the ICDSST 2017 official website: https://icdsst2017.wordpress.com/submissions/
Read more …

The 125th IUFRO Anniversary Congress will take place in Freiburg, Germany 19th-22nd of September 2017. On behalf of the Congress Scientific Committee we invite you to submit your abstract for the session “Decision Support Approaches in Adaptive Forest Management”, which is organised by IUFRO units 4.04.00, 4.04.06 and 4.03.03 and the CoP ForestDSS. The session 61 "Decision Support Approaches in Adaptive Forest Management" is part of the All Division 4 Meeting. We would like to explore the different ways how adaptive forest management can be implemented and supported by DSS. The organizers would like to invite presenters (oral and poster) from different thematic areas including harvest scheduling methods, participatory forest management, risk resilient forest management and forest decision support systems. Deadline for Submissions is 30 November 2016.
Read more…

The Symposium on Systems Analysis in Forest Resources (SSAFR 2017) will take place near Seattle, in Washington, US from August 27-31, 2017.  The 2017 SSAFR is going to be unique in a way as it will bring together two traditionally disconnected disciplines both working on forest decision support systems: the remote sensing/geospatial informatics community and operations researchers. Abstract submissions are now being accepted for SSAFR 2017. The symposium aims to have presentations representing a broad area of systems analysis models and techniques useful for analyzing problems associated with the management of forest resources. For more information please check out http://depts.washington.edu/ssafr17/abstract-submission/ Deadline for Submissions is 10 January 2017
Read more…

There are many more conferences scheduled for 2016/2017 - you are able to track the latest call for abstracts and get to know about interesting conferences at the news and events page of the CoP.

Call for papers in journals

The Journal of Forest Policy and Economics (FORPOL) is seeking papers for the special issue "Models and tools for integrated forest policy analysis"  It aims at improving understanding and capacities in the use of forestry decision support tools for integrated policy analysis. Submission Deadline is 30th of October, 2016.
Read more…

The Journal of Software Engineering and Applications (JSEA, ISSN Online: 1945-3124), a peer-reviewed open-access journal, is seeking papers for the upcoming special issue on "Decision Support Systems". Researchers are invited to submit original research papers to this issue through the Paper Submission System. Submission Deadline is January 18th, 2017.
Read more…

The Journal Sustainability will comprise a selection of papers that present recent approaches and tools for addressing the sustainability of forest management scheduling. It aims at reporting research focusing on Decision support systems as platforms for the transfer of technology and knowledge of forest ecosystems in a way that is understandable to everyone, thus addressing participatory planning concerns. For more information please check out http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/forest_ecosystem_management. Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 November 2016.
Read more....

New members

In the last months a number of new members joined the Community of Practice and we welcome them all: Hector Tuy from Universidad Rafael Landívar (Guatemala), Miguel Segur from CESEFOR Foundation (Spain), Giovanni Preto from Padua (Italy), Milena Lakicevic from University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Agriculture (Serbia), Brady Mattsson from University of Natural Resources & Life Sciences, Vienna (Austria) among many others. We are happy about their involvement in the CoP and warmly welcome the new members - Here are only some new members with their affiliation highlighted - for more details on all members please refer to the search page

In case that you would like to share your activties and your DSS related projects with the community, please provide us with a short notice, so that we are able to include the information in the portal and the next newsletter. Please check out the website for further announcements via the (news and events pages) or follow the latest discussions at the (community pages).

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