Emis

General System description

System name: Establishment Management Information System

Acronym: EMIS

Brief overview

The aim of EMIS was integrate knowledge of site and plant characteristics to provide a whole lifecycle view of scenario options. Fundamentally based on ESC, EMIS extends site selection capabilities by integrating wind hazard, timber quality and other models to provide a broader picture of the establishment opportunities on conifer restock sites.

For more information see Forest Research Decision Support Portal (note registration required)

Scope of the system

• tool encourages decision maker to discover new problems or opportunities by exposing to new information or results
• tool helps decision makers in recognizing upcoming problems for which solutions have been developed previously
• tool allows decision maker to actively create new knowledge when faced with a new problem and to develop novel solutions
• tool allows decision maker to capture knowledge, making it available to decision makers who are seeking solutions from previously solved problems

System origin

• Developed by Mike Perks, Alan Harrison and Stephen Bathgate. Being an integration product its development would not have been possible without fundamental building blocks such as ESC, Forest Gales and many other Forest Research models.
• Currently free to use at stand scale via web.
• Some small scale use in public and private sector.

Support for specific issues

Is the system designed to take into account specific uses? E.g. guidance on ways to characterize biodiversity, economic-biodiversity tradeoff analysis methods, risk assessment methods, landscape analysis methods, timber harvest effects, climate change effects, biological effects (pests, pathogens, invasives), fire,...

Support for specific thematic areas of a problem type

• Silvicultural
• Certification
• Conservation
• Restoration
• Development choices / land use zoning
• Policy/intervention alternatives
• Sustainability impact assessment (SIA)

Capability to support decision making phases

• Intelligence (gives user detailed site analysis - climate and soil parameters)
• Design (provides site analysis in context of many themes)
• Choice (allows user to vary species choice, management options)
• Monitor (highlights risks which in theory could encourage monitoring)

Related systems

Describe (and/or link to) other systems related

• Conifer Timber Quality Model
• ESC
• Forest Gales
• Hylobius Management Support System

Data and data models

Typical spatial extent of application

Web based tool operates at stand scale, ca 1-5 hectares, batch GIS tool has generated regional and national scenarios.

Forest data input

Location via OS GB six figure grid reference, eg NT090950. User also supplies an FC soil type (eg 1g, 4, 7bz), lithology/geology, the presence of heather, aspect and slope.

Type of information input from user (via GUI)

User selects one or more tree species for detailed analysis from an intermediate screen.

Models

Forest models

Growth, wind hazard, timber quality, planting windows, fertiliser, species suitability (ESC), cultivation, risk and brash/stump models.

Social models

N/a

Decision Support

Definition of management interventions

Timing of planting, fertilisation, rotations, species choice.

Prescription enumerating all selected possibilities at stand level, coarser information in GIS layers.

Typical temporal scale of application

Allows full lifecycle analysis of a rotation 30-80+ years.

Types of decisions supported

• Management level
  • strategic decisions
  • administrative decisions
  • operating control decisions
• Management function
• planning decisions
  • organizing decisions
  • command decisions
  • control decisions
  • coordination decisions
• decision making situation
  • unilateral
  • collegial
  • Bargaining / participative decision making

Decision-making processes and models

• Logic modeling
• Operations research modeling
  • Direct approaches
  • Heuristic manipulation of simulation models
• Multiple criteria/ranking
• Other

Output

Types of outputs

Stand version generates tables in HTML, thematic maps can be generated via a batch tool for visualisation in GIS, assuming suitable soil data is available.

Spatial analysis capabilities

• integrated capabilities
• GIS links via batch tool. Limitations in this context due to availability of digital soil maps.
• provides standard data import/export formats
• allows spatial analysis, batch tool generates thematic layers

Abilities to address interdisciplinary, multi-scaled, and political issues

Evaluate interactions between different basic information types (biophysical, economic, social). Produce coordinated results for decision makers operating at different spatial scales facilitate social negotiation and learning

System

System requirements

• Java library deployed on Linux and Windows. UI available at stand level via web, or batch system via command line.
• Utilises many open source Java libraries, GRASS GIS or ArcGIS required for batch stage. Data currently managed in Oracle database or as raster files.
• Beta trial

Architecture and major DSS components

3 tier architecture ( UI, Models, Data)

Web based UI using JSP, HTML, CSS

Also desktop batch tool for GIS processing using Java.

Models are implemented in java and EMIS libraries assemble these in order to answer user questions. These can be called independently if necessary.

Highly modular, components based on themes eg species suitability, wind hazard, etc.

Some simple web service interfaces developed using document literal style WSDL/SOAP and REST.

Basic dataflow is location accesses site climate data, this and other user input data are then processed by the various models to generate outputs.

Usage

Used in education, public and private sector forestry and research.

Computational limitations

Typical processing time for Scottish Forest District 6-8 hours (vector-raster intersection step takes 5-6 hours, models execute over 4000 components in about 1 hour, but this varies according to species etc). Large scale spatial intersections sometimes exhaust machine memory with ArcGIS.

User interface

Web UI requires some understanding of soil types, OS grid references, reference to geological maps. Interpretation of information can be challenging so support is being developed.

Documentation and support

None to date. Support available via email.

Installation

• Prerequisite knowledge: Requires web browser. Server installation requires specialised skills and tools. Batch mode requires some configuration on host machine.