Recent developments in decision analysis for forest management.

Author(s):  
G. A. Mendoza



2008 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. 492-497
Author(s):  
Mark R Roberts

The purposes of this paper are to review the history of forest ecology courses at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in relation to the social context, summarize recent developments in forest ecology research at UNB, and identify critical areas for future research. Based on the UNB Undergraduate Calendar (1942 to present), the first forest ecology course was offered in 1957. Until the 1980s, forest ecology courses were generally related to silviculture and forest production. Since then, courses reflected increasing public concern with biodiversity and sustainable forest management. Research in the Forest Ecology Laboratory at UNB has emphasized forest ecosystem response to disturbance, including tree regeneration and herbaceous-layer recovery following silvicultural treatments. From this work, a disturbance severity model was developed for characterizing any kind of disturbance. Future research is needed to test the model across additional disturbance types, particularly new silvicultural treatments that are being used in forest ecosystem management. Key words: teaching, forest ecology, research, disturbance, herbaceous layer, biodiversity, sustainable forest management, ecosystem management



1978 ◽  
Vol 76 (9) ◽  
pp. 570-573
Author(s):  
Dieter R. Pelz

Abstract A 1976 survey of 58 schools in the United States and Canada showed that computer-assisted instruction is widely used, most frequently in forest management, silviculture, and quantitative analysis courses. A total of 92 simulation models were identified. Recent developments are demonstrated by PLATO, a computer-based education system.



Author(s):  
Ayeley P. Tchangani

Decision analysis, the mechanism by which a final decision is reached in terms of choice (choosing an alternative or a subset of alternatives from a large set of alternatives), ranking (ranking alternatives of a set from the worst to the best), classification (assigning alternatives to some known classes or categories), or sorting (clustering alternatives to form homogeneous classes or categories) is certainly the most pervasive human activity. Some decisions are made routinely and do not need sophisticated algorithms to support decision analysis process whereas other decisions need more or less complex processes to reach a final decision. Methods and models developed to solve decision analysis problems are in constant evolution going from mechanist models of operational research to more sophisticated and soft computing-oriented models that attempt to integrate human attitude (emotion, affect, fear, egoism, altruism, selfishness, etc.). This complex, soft computing and near human mechanism of problem solving is rendered possible thanks to the overwhelming computational power and data storage possibility of modern computers. The purpose of this chapter is to present new and recent developments in decision analysis that attempt to integrate human judgment through bipolarity notion.



2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (2s) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Colantoni ◽  
F. Recanatesi ◽  
S. Baldini ◽  
M. Felicetti ◽  
M. Romagnoli

The growing interest in the development of chains for the use of agroforestry biomass for energy demand, is due to the awareness they are a crucial element to mitigate the global climatic change effects. The true effort is to have a reliable estimation of biomass availability by some instruments like forest management plans, which allow to locate the forest supply and to know the forest biomass availability in a medium period. In this paper we carried out a decision analysis by geographic information system, in Tuscia Romana area comprising 11 municipalities for a total amount of 813 km2. An estimation was carried out taking into account the bibliographic data on the analyzed species, reporting the biomass in weight taken out by the forest cut utilization. A comparison was also performed in field on chestnut trees cut in a sampling area near Bracciano and in a close sawmill. The results show long, medium and short-term dynamics, but some critical points were found related to the process of estimation and to the real procurement of biomass in some years. The results suggest to be care in a possible project of a biomass plant.



2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (03) ◽  
pp. 1850009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanna Sironen ◽  
Laura Mononen

Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) of regional level long-term forest management scenarios was conducted by applying spatially explicit information to examine the trade-offs between ecological, economic and social impacts. Interval scale judgements were applied to mapped and numerical information jointly, while assessing the performance of alternative scenarios. The experts relied mostly on the numerical information, with which they might have been more confident and familiar. The weight elicitation was based on SMART using Swings (SMARTS) and SMART Exploiting Ranks (SMARTER). SMARTS resulted in two scenarios being quite equal either due to experts truly considering them equally important or being unconfident to express their weights applying SMARTS. SMARTER was considered more understandable, but lead to total utilities having wider range. However, impact information had a greater effect on the overall utility than the weighting. Future insights include use of dynamic approach, considering the issue more from ecosystem services point of view and tighter integration of participatory MCDA and geographic information systems (GIS).





Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 399
Author(s):  
Marlene Marques ◽  
Keith M. Reynolds ◽  
Marco Marto ◽  
Milena Lakicevic ◽  
Carlos Caldas ◽  
...  

Forest management planning is a challenge due to the diverse criteria that need to be considered in the underlying decision-making process. This challenge becomes more complex in joint collaborative management areas (ZIF) because the decision now may involve numerous actors with diverse interests, preferences, and goals. In this research, we present an approach to identifying and quantifying the most relevant criteria that actors consider in a forest management planning process in a ZIF context, including quantifying the performance of seven alternative stand-level forest management models (FMM). Specifically, we developed a combined multicriteria decision analysis and group decision-making process by (a) building a cognitive map with the actors to identify the criteria and sub-criteria; (b) structuring the decision tree; (c) structuring a questionnaire to elicit the importance of criteria and sub-criteria in a pairwise comparison process, and to evaluate the FMM alternatives; and (d) applying a Delphi survey to gather actors’ preferences. We report results from an application to a case study area, ZIF of Vale do Sousa, in North-Western Portugal. Actors assigned the highest importance to the criteria income (56.8% of all actors) and risks (21.6% of all actors) and the lowest to cultural services (27.0% of all actors). Actors agreed on their preferences for the sub-criteria of income (diversification of income sources), risks (wildfires) and cultural services (leisure and recreation activities). However, there was a poor agreement among actors on the sub-criteria of the wood demand and biodiversity criteria. For 27.0% of all actors the FMM with the highest performance was the pedunculate oak and for 43.2% of all actors the eucalypt FMM was the least preferable alternative. The findings indicate that this approach can support ZIF managers in enhancing forest management planning by improving its utility for actors and facilitating its implementation.



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