General System Description

Brief Overview

WIS.2 is a decision support system for monitoring and ensuring the sustainable, goal-oriented and efficient management of forest ecosystems, especially with regard to the:

• integral handling of significant spatial- and temporal scales in forest ecosystems (i.e., multiscalarity, sustainability);
• valorisation of intrinsic multiple ways of using the forest (i.e., multifunctionality, adaptability);
• implementation of a liberal and pragmatic view of silviculture as applied in Switzerland (i.e., flexibility, close-to-nature).

WIS.2, based on MS Access and ArcGIS View, is composed of different applications, each handling a main aspect of the management of forest ecosystems. As a prototype, WIS.2 is currently being tested in three forest enterprises and promoted by a forest engineering firm. The tool is used at all levels of education for forest management in Switzerland.

WIS.2 was developed during 2001-2005 within the framework of a PhD thesis at the ETH in Zurich (Rosset, 2005 ^[1]), and has since then been successively developed in an iterative manner using inputs gained from practical experience. Plans are currently being made to refine the tool in a research and development project and launch a commercial product called SMART-Forest.

Scope of the System

WIS.2 focuses on providing guidance in sustainable forestry management. The system gives strong organisational and decision support in implementing, monitoring and controlling silvicultural practices. The system provides specific information for the different phases of the silvicultural process, allowing planners to simulate the mid- to long-term consequences of various action scenarios, and supporting users in solving complex silvicultural problems at multiple scales (i.e., from the whole enterprise level down to the single stand level; from very long-term to short-term). The scope of WIS.2 includes:

• formalising the manifold demands of society, forest owners and stakeholders for implementation in forest management;
• defining different variations of silvicultural strategy and implementation concepts, in order to assess the engineering strategy and recognize the mid- to long-term consequences;
• pointing out the priority-of-action by connecting long-term strategic planning with mid-term harvesting planning;
• facilitating regular control of the development of forest areas with regard to the realisation of the enterprise strategy;
• giving guidance on how to react in a flexible way to changes such as market fluctuations and unforeseen events like storms;
• encouraging the documentation and reporting of the decisions taken with regard to the managerial plan;
• enabling the user to handle the given complexity - step by step.

System Origin

As multi-purpose, near-to-nature silviculture seeks to steer forest dynamics towards socio-economic and conservation goals through minimal anthropogenic intervention, the necessity for a powerful forest management decision support system that implements and monitors such silvicultural practices is getting stronger. In order to face this challenge, WIS.1 was initially designed in the 1990s by Good and Pistor (1992^[2]) as an information system for silvicultural planning at stand level. Under the name of WIS.2 the system evolved from an information system to a DSS by integrating knowledge and supporting the entire decision process of the management of forest ecosystems. Further adaptations have been subsequently made (i.e., prototyping), such as e.g. during a 10-day course on silvicultural planning held at the ETHZ in a small forest enterprise (150ha) owned by the Canton of Zurich.

WIS.2 has real-life application scenarios on the level of forest management, education, as well as in research and development.

Forest management

In forest management the tool has been extensively applied in the:

• State forest of Teufen in Canton Zurich;
• teaching and research forest of the ETH in Zurich;
• forest of the city of Winterthur[1];
• forest of the city of Rheinfelden[2];
• forest of the village of Bullet in Canton Vaud (diploma thesis);

Plans are currently being made to apply the tool in a forest in Canton Freiburg, as well as in a forest in Thailand (diploma thesis).

Education

WIS.2 is being applied at all levels of the education in forest management in Switzerland in order to illustrate and demonstrate forest planning.

The main motivation behind introducing WIS.2 in teaching is to:

• enhance awareness of the consequences of very slow tree growth by visualising long-term trends resulting from decisions taken;
• concentrate on concept building to derive urgency of intervention to be undertaken at stand level (i.e., how to steer forest dynamics in order to reach the production target as efficiently as possible) and subsequently and visit the stands with highest priority first;
• elaborate on and compare different variations in forestry management.

Students who have used the prototype have been providing valuable feedback that is in an iterative manner to improve the IT-solution.

Research and Development

A further tool based on the same platform (WVK) is currently being developed[3].

Commercial product

WIS.2 is not yet a commercial product. However, the system is going to be refined within the framework of a research project and launched as a commercial product through collaborative partnerships under the name of SMART-Forest.

Support for specific issues

Liberal and pragmatic view of silviculture

The liberal and pragmatic view of silviculture in Switzerland implies that the planning should leave as much leeway as possible for manoeuvering when implementing the planned intervention. WIS.2 takes a multi-level, top-down, situation-oriented approach and provides foresters with room for maneuvering when specifically determining in the field the most appropriate silvicultural techniques to use.

Formalisation of the manifold demands of society and forest owners in silvicultural requirement profiles

In order to meet the demands of society and forest owners, the objectives with regard to the desired status of the stands (what to reach), the given conditions of the location (where to intervene) and the related spatial organization (how to coordinate the procedure) need to be clearly specified. In WIS.2, this specification is described in the form of silvicultural profiles that define the desired status of the stands under the given local conditions. Silvicultural profiles are comprised of criteria (e.g., types of trees) and indicators that further specify the criteria (e.g., oak, fir, maple). The grading of the criteria is given at three levels: very important/ very appropriate, important/ appropriate, less important/ less appropriate.

Capabilities to support the decision-making process

WIS.2 supports silvicultural decision-making phases by:

• providing valuable information for the different phases of the process and allowing planners to simulate mid- to long-term consequences in varying action scenarios;
• defining different variations of silvicultural strategy and implementation concepts;
• assessing the feasibility of action scenarios and revealing the long- and mid-term consequences;
• pointing out the priority of action by connecting long-term strategic planning with mid-term harvesting planning;
• giving guidance on how to react in a flexible way to changes such as market fluctuations and unforeseen events.

Data and Data Models

Typical spatial extent of application

The typical scale of use for the application is the forest enterprise that is comprised of forest stands. The average size of stands range from one to several hectares, and the size of enterprises range between a few hundred to several thousand hectares.

Forest data input

In order to use WIS.2, data on forest stands and phytosociological units are required. The stands represent the core of the model, as they are considered to be the basic unit of forest perception and management. A stand is a more or less coherent and homogenous part of the forest with regard to vertical structure, tree dimensions and tree species (Schütz, 2002). The phytosociological unit (PU) represents more or less homogenous site conditions, which are determined according to the occurrence of indicator plants and soil characteristics. PUs can be very small (for example a wet area of 10are around a small water spring), but are nevertheless useful planning inputs, as they can be used in conjunction with expert knowledge such as e.g. tree species scope and site productivity. Inputs on the relief (i.e., slope and exposition) and proximity to roads are advantageous. These data are available for the entire area of most Swiss cantons. WIS.2 can also be applied with stand data derived from aerial photos (e.g., stand structure, development stage, tree composition). However, for a more detailed analysis, additional information is required such as main tree diameter (for a well-timed intervention), tree mixture (wood supply, special assortment, rare tree species), age (demographic development) and vertical structure (environment for flora and fauna, recreational areas, protection against natural disasters). These data do not need to be precisely measured. Estimations that are based on selective measurements on individual trees are sufficient as semi-quantative inputs to the system, and can quickly be assessed by a trained person.

Models

Forest Models

Forest models that are taken into account with WIS.2 are:

• Intervention concepts for e.g. tending and thinning (i.e., when to intervene during the stand life, dominant dhb, how to reach the production targets efficiently);
• Demographic models for e.g. comparison of current age structure and demographic equilibrium;
• Growth functions for e.g. planned intervention for the next 10 years (i.e., overview of what, where and when);
• Expert recommendations on the scope of action for e.g. proportion of softwood or other phytosociological units.

Decision Support

Definition of management interventions

WIS.2 takes a multi-level, top-down, situation-oriented approach that provides the forester with enough room for manoeuvring when determining which silvicultural techniques to use. WIS.2 enables structuring the process of decision-making by indicating the necessary information for the different stages of the process, allowing planners to simulate the mid- and long-term consequences of different actions. Managers are provided with valuable information on the consequences of different action scenarios.

Typical temporal scale of application

The approach to perform planning with WIS.2 spans from a vision in the very long term for a whole forest area (entrepreneurial strategy) to interventions undertaken in the short term at stand level. Silvicultural measures taken with WIS.2 at stand level are typically defined for a planning period of 10 years.

Types of decisions supported

As a silvicultural concept, WIS.2 offers a coherent solution at a strategic and tactical level to reach previously-defined targets. Because trees are long-living and slow-growing organisms, it is necessary to take long-term decisions at the strategic level for the whole forest area (or a part of it) and to define general guidelines. The imbrication of stands in a large and heterogeneous mosaic, for example, means that priorities must be defined and measures co-ordinated at the tactical level (10-30 years).

WIS.2 takes a pragmatic planning approach that focuses on a relatively small number of decisions with far reaching implications. This approach is based on the basic idea that the operational scope of action must be left as much leeway as possible for manoeuvering, in order to be able to react to unforeseen short-term changes as flexibly as possible. Firstly, the entire forest perimeter is subdivided into planning units according to the respective cutting systems. In essence, five decisions are made for each planning unit: the target tree species composition and guidelines for its implementation according to the prevailing phytosociological units; the target tree dimensions and the respective production time frames; rejuvenation politics (regeneration area per decade); thinning concept. In addition to these, basic inputs are added in order to deduce that priorities of action. The greatest challenge for the user of WIS.2 is to actually gain an overview of the whole decision system and to thoroughly understand the interrelationships between the relevant spatial and temporal scales. Simple models can be applied to the individual, clearly separate decision steps, such as the normal forest model with which demographic deficits and surpluses are roughly calculated in order to obtain a benchmark for the rejuvenation of the forest. This type of model simple to understand and the results are also easy to interpret, avoiding the black-box effect. Generous decision parameters where chosen on purpose (e.g., 10 categories for tree species and phytosociological units are grouped), in order for the user to be able to gain an overview and make and pursue an optimized approach independently. While this summarizes the basic planning, it is also possible to refine the approach by including silvicultural requirement profiles.

Decision making process and models

The decision making process is an iterative process. First, the user analyses the necessary input to make a decision. This input consists of information and explanatory models. After making the decision, the user analyses its feasibility by comparing it to the present situation and to the targets defined in the previous decision steps. The impact of the decision is simulated using a decision model. The next interface consists of the outputs of the simulation. The decisions taken are recorded at the end, along with comments. In addition to the principle that it must be the user who takes the decision, the following interaction principles have been formulated:

• Information is useful to the user if he has easy access to the meta-information (precision, actuality, method of collecting the data);
• Decision variables must be introduced to the system by the users (no standard variables);
• Interpretation of the simulation outputs is left up to the user,
• Models are a simplification of reality. They are only useful if the user knows about the hypothesis and the validation area of the model;
• Decision models have many variables so that the user can understand the simulation outputs.

Structuring the complexity of forest management; organization of the decision support

The modeling of the system is based on the methodology of Schönsleben (2001^[3]) and Specker (2001^[4]), which describes the development of integral information systems that support the value-adding process of an enterprise. Based on these important processes for the success of an enterprise, the necessary supporting functions and objects are organized and structured, and the implementation tasks defined. These tasks are allocated to organisational units in the enterprise, which have the necessary competencies and resources.

This methodology was adapted for WIS.2. The complex decision-making process in forestry management was shifted to the center of attention and divided into tasks and sub-tasks with clear interfaces. Each interface is responsible for the solution of a clearly defined management problem that are allocated the necessary information and testing possibilities for the solution of the specific problem (see Rosset 2005 for an overview and Rosset 2005b^[5])for details).

Output

Types of output

WIS.2 provides information concerning the analysis of the situation, management orientation and organisation of interventions.

Analysis of the situation

• Detailed cartography on the functions of the forest;
• Visualisation of the silvicultural leeway for manoeuvering at multi-stand level;
• Indicators of the current status of the entire forest area (e.g., development stage, stationary conditions, tree mixture).

Management orientation

• Combined objectives that state the management orientation (i.e., positioning the enterprise in order to ensure success);
• Application zones for cutting systems, tree composition, target diameter and production periods and particular stand structures;
• Guidance for choosing appropriate tree species according to the prevailing site conditions (sylvicultural recommendations based on the phytosociological unit; realisation of the goal for tree species composition within the perimeter);
• Guidance for determining the most appropriate moment for intervention in the stands, intervention type and intensity (according to the production objectives);
• Guidance for conversion from one cutting system to another, depending on the feasibility of each system;

Organisation of interventions

• Maps showing the urgency and priority of interventions;
• Assessment of the possibilities (hiebsatz) regarding the durable rejuvenation of the forest perimeter;
• Global rejuvenation areas per management period to be used as demographic regulators.

Decision pages

The decision pages are the building blocks of the silvicultural plan and give concrete instructions on how to implement the enterprise strategy at stand level. They are designed to create a simplified report of the silvicultural plan. The standardised layout makes it easy for the user to rapidly get accustomed with the system. On each decision page the user can see the current stage of the process (overview) and the reason and aim of the planning steps. Comments made by the decision maker can be read in a specific field (reason for the decision; description of main consequences; implementation instructions). The decision pages come in the form of graphs, tables and maps that visualise the decisions made, place them in comparison to the current state of the stand (urgency of action), show the mid- to long-term trends (how fast and with what consequences the decisions can be realised), depict the developments over the past years/decades, and state in the necessity of action in the form of plans (where and why will interventions be made).

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

WIS.2 clearly has the ability to address interdisciplinary, multi-scaled- and political issues. The tool utilises semi-quantitative data describing the stands, as well as expert knowledge linked to the (phytosociological units in the) stands. WIS.2 combines wood production with other socio-economic and conservation goals, using a minimum of anthropogenic interventions and taking into account the heterogeneity of site conditions and stand structural types.

System

Architecture and major DSS requirements

Software architecture WIS.2 was developed and adapted on the basis of Microsoft® Access 2000/2007 and ESRI ArcGIS® 8.2/9.3. These two applications were selected because of their widespread usage, their full integration into the Windows system (i.e., COM-technology), the possibility of extending their capabilities by using Visual Basic, (a simple programming language), and the ease with which they can create user interfaces.

Modularity The system is built modularly with geographic, general and specific thematic data modules, along with interface modules such as the data analysis module or the regeneration concept module. Specific data corresponds to a particular forest enterprise.

Usage

WIS.2 can be used at research-, industry-, as well as at Government levels.

User Interface

WIS.2 comprises an intuitive user interface that does not require any prerequisite knowledge of the system. The user interface is organised in iterative decision steps. First, the user analyses the necessary input to make a decision; this input consists of information and explanatory models. After making the decision, the user analyses its feasibility by comparing it to the present situation and to the targets defined in the previous decision steps. The impact of the decision is simulated using a decision model. The next interface consists of the outputs of the simulation. The decisions taken are recorded at the end of the process, along with comments.

Welcome interface/ Main interface

WIS.2 is built up modularly and comprises several applications that each focus on a main theme in forest management (Rosset, 2005b). These specific applications are data management, analysis of forest areas (current state, availability of resources) and planning (silvicultural strategy, rejuvenation and preservation). Analogue to the decision making process, each and every application is structured in several user interfaces in which the user can move freely. Information vital for making the decision is made available, as well as the possibility to test several variations.

References

Cited references

1. ↑ Rosset, C. (2005): Système de gestion sylvicole intégrée et d’aide à la décision. Les WIS.2, un instrument informatique pour un sylvicole efficient et ciblée, durable, multifontionelle et proche de la nature. Diss. Nr. 16005, EPF Zurich, Zurich
2. ↑ Good, E., Pistor, T. (1992): Waldbauliches Informationssystem WIS, Handbuch. Professur für Waldbau, ETH Zürich, Zürich
3. ↑ Schönsleben, P. (2001): Integrales Informationsmanagement – Information für Geschäftsprozesse – Management, Modellierung, Lebenszyklus und Technologie, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg
4. ↑ Specker, A. (2001): Modellierung von Informationssystemen. Zürich, vdf Hochschulverlag AG. 372 S.
5. ↑ Rosset, C. (2005b):Le WIS.2, un instrument informatique pour un gestion efficiente et ciblée des ècosystèmes forestieres. SAFE-Infoblatt Nr. 18, July 15th: pp 4-6