A GIS-BASED DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR FOREST MANAGEMENT PLANS IN TURKEY

In this paper, we present a web-based decision support system (DSS)—wSADfLOR—to facilitate the access of stakeholders to tools that may contribute to enhancing forest management planning. The emphasis is on a web-based architecture and a web graphic user interface (wGUI) that may effectively support the analysis of trade-offs between ecosystem services in order to address participatory and sustainable forest management objectives. For that purpose, the wGUI provides remote access to a management information system, enabling users to analyze environmental and biometric data and topological information as well. Moreover, the wGUI provides remote access to forest simulators so that users may define and simulate prescriptions such as chronological sequences of management options and the corresponding forest ecosystem services outcomes. Remote access to management planning methods is further provided so that users may input their objectives and constraints. The wGUI delivers information about tradeoffs between ecosystem services in the form of decision maps so that users in different locations may negotiate bundles of ecosystem services as well as the plan needed to provide them. The multiple criteria programming routines provide proposals for management plans that may be assessed further, using geographical and alphanumeric information provided by the wGUI. Results for an application to a forested landscape extending to 14,388 ha are presented and discussed. This landscape provides several ecosystem services and the development of its management plan involves multiple stakeholders. Results show that the web-based architecture and the wGUI provide effective access for stakeholders to information about the forest management planning area and to decision support tools that may contribute to addressing complex multi-objective and multiple-decision-maker management planning contexts. They also highlight that the involvement and participation of stakeholders in the design of the web-based architecture contributes to assuring the quality and the usability of the system.

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Forest management strategies to reduce spruce budworm damage in the Fundy Model Forest

The Forestry Chronicle ◽

10.5558/tfc72399-4 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 72 (4) ◽

pp. 399-405 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

David A. MacLean

Keyword(s):

Decision Support ◽

Forest Management ◽

Decision Support System ◽

Support System ◽

Tree Mortality ◽

Choristoneura Fumiferana ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Spruce Budworm ◽

Stand Age ◽

Timber Supply

Spruce budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana) outbreaks cannot be prevented, but the amount of damage that occurs can be managed. Tree species, stand age, hardwood content, and drainage class, as well as the outbreak severity and length, determine the amount of tree mortality during budworm outbreaks. Silviculture and forest management can be used to reduce the incidence of the most damaged stand types across the landscape. The amount of defoliation in mixed balsam fir-hardwood stands is strongly negatively related to hardwood content, especially with hardwoods > 40%. The Spruce Budworm Decision Support System (DSS) links models of stand and forest response to budworm outbreaks and inventory interpretation to a GIS, and can be used to evaluate effects of outbreaks and management on forest structure and timber supply. An example using the Spruce Budworm DSS for a portion of the Fundy Model Forest indicated that losses from a future budworm outbreak could be reduced 34% by directing harvesting and silviculture towards conversion of one-half of the most vulnerable stand types into low susceptibility or non-susceptible species. Key words: decision support system, vulnerability, silviculture, insect damage

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The forest management decision support system project

The Forestry Chronicle ◽

10.5558/tfc67622-6 ◽

1991 ◽

Vol 67 (6) ◽

pp. 622-628 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Dan Bulger ◽

Harold Hunt

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Decision Support ◽

Forest Management ◽

Decision Support System ◽

Decision Support Systems ◽

Support System ◽

Support Systems ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Management Decision ◽

Management Decision Support

The focus of a decision support system is much different from Management Information Systems (MIS) and data-based "decision support systems". Decision support systems, as defined by the authors, focus on decisions and decision makers, and on information. Technology is treated as a tool and data as the raw material. In many traditional systems the focus is on the technology, and the data is the "information", while decision makers are, to some extent, externalized.The purpose of the Forest Management Decision Support System (FMDSS) project is to develop a set of software tools for creating forest management decision support systems. This set of tools will be used to implement a prototype forest management decision support system for the Plonski forest, near Kirkland Lake, Ontario.There are three critical ingredients in building the FMDSS, these are: (1) knowledge of the decision making process, (2) knowledge of the forest, and (3) the functionality of underlying support technology. The growing maturity of the underlying technology provides a tremendous opportunity to develop decision support tools. However, a significant obstacle to building FMDSS has been the diffuse nature of knowledge about forest management decision making processes, and about the forest ecosystem itself. Often this knowledge is spread widely among foresters, technicians, policy makers, and scientists, or is in a form that is not easily amenable to the decision support process. This has created a heavy burden on the project team to gather and collate the knowledge so that it could be incorporated into the function and design of the system. It will be difficult to gauge the success of this exercise until users obtain the software and begin to experiment with its use.

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