SimForTree

General System description

System name:

Acronym: SimForTree

Brief overview

SimForTree is a decision support tool still in development for sustainable forest management based on ecophysiological analysis and simulation of the variability in tree development.

Scope of the system

SimForTree DSS follows to solve this three questions:

1. Predict changes in wood production quality and quantity as a result of forest management practice, for three Flemish wood-processing enterprises.
2. Predict the ecosystem fluxes of carbon and water for specific forest management and climatic change scenarios, in a representative Flemish forest.
3. Long-term prediction of ecosystem fluxes in a mixed uneven-aged and structurally complex forest, at the stand and landscape scales.

System origin

• SimForTree is a research project financed by the Flemish IWT (Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders) with participants from the universities of Antwerpen (Universiteit Antwerpen), Gent (Universiteit Gent) and Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven).
• The project development is being accompanied by a stewardship council with all the key stakeholders.
• It is still in development

Models

Forest models

The ANAFORE model will be the core for SimForTree^[1]. Currently, ANAFORE is working and freely available^[2].

Three versions of the SimForTree model will be available, answering different requirements:

• Forest-Wood Chain SimForTree
• Environmental SimForTree
• Ecosystem SimForTree

References

Cited references

1. ↑ DECKMYN, G., H. VERBEECK, M. OP DE BEECK, D. VANSTEENKISTE, K. STEPPE, et R. CEULEMANS (2008): ANAFORE: a stand-scale process-based forest model that includes wood tissue development and labile carbon storage in trees. Ecological Modelling, 215, 345-368
2. ↑ ANAFORE model

External resources

• SimForTree project website