Agflor

General System description

System name: Agro-forestry decision support system

Acronym: AGfLOR

Brief overview

AGfLOR is a tool to help assess impacts of policy changes on regional land use patterns

The system was developed in 2007/2008 by the Centre of Forest Studies of Instituto Superior of Agonomia (CEF/ISA) of the Technical University of Lisbon in the framework of Project INTERREG IIIA “Desarrollo de un sistema de información para la gestión ambiental y económica del ecosistema dehesa/montado en Extremadura y Alentejo. 2ª Fase”.

AGfLOR is used by the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture Regional Office of Alentejo (DRAPAL) to assess impacts of Common Agricultural Policy changes on regional land use patterns in Southern Portugal.

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
Transportation
Development choices / land use zoning
Policy/intervention alternatives
Sustainability impact assessment (SIA)

Capability to support decision making phases

(NOTE I do not quite know what to do with this, as I do not understand it myself, although it seems related to system use)

(Click here to see a more detailed explanation)

Intelligence (+ explicit description of the support given by the DSS)
Design (+ explicit description of the support given by the DSS)
Choice (+ explicit description of the support given by the DSS)
Monitor (+ explicit description of the support given by the DSS)

Related systems

Describe (and/or link to) other systems related

Data and data models

Typical spatial extent of application

Define the scale of use for the application (user defined, regional, multi-owner forest single ownership forest, Multiple scale interaction)

Forest data input

Describe the basic forest input (forest level, stand level, or individual tree level), and appropriate meta-data, such as data provenance (Areal coverage, Sample of plots, stands, Contiguous forest cover). GIS information is to be considered here, namely include cover tyes and type of information (raster or vectorial, necessity of topological information) If necessary describe surrogate sources of information

If necessary describe other types of required data (economic, social)

Type of information input from user (via GUI)

Describe what is the information that the user directly inputs in the system if any): expert knowledge, opinion, goals and production objectives, preferences, stand/site information....

Models

Forest models

Growth, Yield, Carbon, Wood quality, biodiversity and habitat suitability, environmental and external effects (fire, storms, pests, diseases, climate change, etc)

Social models

historical and cultural values of sites, values due to peace and quiet, esthetic values, values due to recreational activities, ethical values): E. g. Recreation, Health, Game

Decision Support

Definition of management interventions

Define what is available for the manager to intervene in the forest: time of harvest, plantations, thinnings, reconversions... Existence of prescription writer, simple enumeration of all possibilities, scenario simulation , etc.

Typical temporal scale of application

Define the temporal scale of the application: E.g., operational and immediate level, Tactical planning (short term) and strategic level.

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
Business modeling
Simulation (with and without stochasticity)
Multiple criteria/ranking
Other

Output

Types of outputs

Types of outputs produced (tables, maps, 3-D visualizations, pre-programmed summaries, etc)

Spatial analysis capabilities

integrated capabilities
facilitates links to GIS (wizards, etc.)
provides standard data import/export formats
allows spatial analysis (e.g. topology overlays (e.g. multi layering of different maps, selection of objects based on selection criteria, aggregation by attributes (e.g. areas of similar characteristics), Linking by logical means, Statistics by area, analysis with digital terrain model)

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

Operating Systems: (Windows, Macintosh, Linux/UNIX, Web-based, Others)
Other software needed (GIS, MIP packages, etc...)
Development status

Architecture and major DSS components

Describe the basic architecture of the system in software and hardware. Desktop client-server, web based, as well as the integration with available systems. Basic data flow, focusing on retrieval of required input and propagation and implementations of decisions. Mention its modular and scalability capabilities.

Usage

Describe the level of use: Research level use, Industry use, Government use

Computational limitations

Describe the system limitations: e.g. number of management units, number of vehicles, time horizon

User interface

Describe the quality of user interface and the Prerequisite knowledge for using the system

Documentation and support

Describe the connection to Help-system and possibilities for assistance, as well as the required training and user support levels

Installation

Prerequisite knowledge: Level of effort to become functional
Cost: (purchase price, development costs, demonstrated return on investment, cost of use, training costs, licence and maintenance costs)
Demo: allows the download/utilization of a trial version. If yes, where is it available and what are the trial conditions.

References

Cited references

External resources

Borges P.J., Fragoso R., Garcia-Gonzalo J., Borges J. G., Marques S. and Lucas, M.R. 2009. Assessing impacts of Common Agricultural Policy changes on regional land use patterns with a decision support system. An application in Southern Portugal. Forest Policy and Economics doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2009.09.002