You are invited to submit your work to the Special issue "Expert Decision Making for Data Analytics with Applications" of the Journal Applied Soft Computing.
This special issue aims to bring together academia and practitioners of both applied decision science and applied data science to report on the recent developments to integrate decision models based on expert judgements into data analytics algorithms to form sophisticated approaches for solving complex decision problems for various application domains.
A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907) belonging to the section "Forest Ecology and Management" is organized by guest editors Karin Öhman and Eva-Maria Nordström on the topic "Integrating Multi Criteria Decision Analysis in Forest Planning". The deadline for manuscript submissions is 10 April 2020.
Decision-making processes in the European Forest Sector are characterized by an enormous diversity in institutional and political framework conditions. In general, there is a clear need to improve policy integration and management approaches in order to deliver the competing ecosystem services demanded by society. The Special Issue “Models and tools for integrated forest management and forest policy analysis” originates from an initiative of Working Group 2 “Forestry modelling for integrated policy analysis” of COST Action FP1207 “Orchestrating forest-related policy analysis in Europe (ORCHESTRA)” to address this challenge. The emphasis is on improving the understanding and capacities in the use of forestry decision support tools for integrated policy analysis. For that purpose, it provides an overview of existing models, methods and/or decision support systems (DSS) that account or may be used for forest-related policy analysis at multiple levels. It discusses benefits and limitations/challenges of the use of these tools with a reference to its application in real case studies. Conclusions on the state-of-the-art in decision support for policy analysis and the needed advances in research are drawn. The following papers are part of this special issue:
A Special Issue entitled "Land Change Modelling" will be issued in Land (ISSN 2073-445X). There is a special interest in manuscripts describing new approaches to land change modelling as well as large-scale applications. More information about this Special Issue can be found at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land/special_issues/land_change_modelling
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 Forests (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests) on Decision Support to Address Multiple Ecosystem Services in Forest Management Planning
A special issue of 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.
Forest management today can be characterized as an operational environment with a significant amount of ecological, economic and social uncertainties that influence the long-term planning. Decision makers face several challenges in making a choice for the best management strategy, as external factors are often stochastic in nature and the options for adaption are numerous. Rising demands from society regarding a sustainable provision of ecosystems services increase the complexity of forest decision problems as well. The potential for the development of decision support approaches in forest management is facilitated by decision theory, technology, and operations research methods. Demands for decision support are emerging as a result of the challenges and problems facing forest management, and these demands act as stimuli for the research community. As objectives and approaches in forest management change throughout history, the demand for approaches to support planning and decision making will change as well. Given large uncertainties regarding to future environmental conditions, and given evolutions in societal demands, decision support approaches are seen as very promising for facilitating strategic ecosystem management planning processes. Nowadays, Decision Support Systems (DSS) can play a significant role in analysing the needs of adaptation of forest management strategies and can support policy makers in making appropriate decisions. DSS are important to adjust present management to mitigate the impacts of climate change on forests and forest management. At the same time, the influence of adaptive management on ecosystem services and forest multifunctionality is the task of DSS use.
For this Special Issue of Forests, we were able to have a collection of 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. This special issue provides also papers which resulted from a conference session of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations’ (IUFRO) 125th Anniversary Congress in Freiburg, Germany in 2017. The joint sessions and other meetings (and resulting publications) were appropriate opportunities for knowledge sharing on these important methods and systems for protecting and managing forest ecosystems in the future.
The following papers are part of this Special Issue:
It is well known that forests provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including provisioning services (wood, firewood, fruits, etc.), cultural services (recreation, knowledge, etc.) and regulating services (water and climate regulation, among others). Therefore, ecosystem services include goods and services, with and without markets. Both the marketed and the non-marketed goods and services should be incorporated into forest management making processes in several ways.
The journal Forests (ISSN 1999-4907, IF 1.951) is currently running a Special Issue entitled "Integrating Ecosystem Services into Valuation and Forest Management Decisions". Professor Luis Díaz-Balteiro, of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, (Madrid, Spain), and Dr. Mario Soliño, of the National Institute for Agriculture & Food Research & Technology (INIA), Forest Research Centre (CIFOR), (Madrid, Spain), are serving as Guest Editors for this issue.
