SGIS
General System description
System name: Skog (Norwegian for forest) Geographical Information System.
Acronym: SGIS
Brief overview
The SGIS is a strategic planning system designed to aid the planner in selecting site-specific management schedules that will conform to environmental and recreational standards.
Contents
Scope of the system
SGIS is a tool for simulation of forest development and optimization of forest treatments in a GIS-user interface!
System origin
The current version of SGIS is based on a prototype developed in PC-ArcInfo (Næsset 1997).
SGIS is now based on ArcView version 8 (9) and is programmed using Visual Basic for Applications.
SGIS consists of a functionality specially made for forest related problems and standard ArcView GIS-functionality.
SGIS was mainly developed for teaching and research at the university but are now also used in commercial forestry.
SGIS consists of GAYA (stand simulator) and J (mathematical programming tool). Both GAYA and J is hidden behind the SGIS windows GIS interface (ArcView)
Related systems
Data and data models
Typical spatial extent of application
The primary unit of SGIS is usually the forest stand or sometimes even a smaller unit if sufficient data for such units can be provided.
Forest data input
Digitized stands boundaries and the stand database can be imported from forest management planning systems.
Type of information input from user (via GUI)
Stand treatments schedules and spatial constraints (buffers, adjacencies, etc.). Number of 5- or 10-year periods used for calculations. Also, allowable treatments in each stand is prescribed. The user must specify an objective function and constraints, too.
Models
Forest models
Once stand treatments schedules and spatial constraints are defined, GAYA stand simulator is used. GAYA provides the future development of stand variables such as diameter, height, volume and value increment over time.
Decision Support
Definition of management interventions
Time of harvest, plantations, thinnings, reconversions...
Typical temporal scale of application
Although being data collected at stand level, the application was developed in order to join multiple stands and reach conclusions at a strategy planning level.
Types of decisions supported
- Management level
- strategic decisions
Output
Types of outputs
Results are displayed in tabular reports summarizing quantities, values, etc. of the optimal solution, shadow prices, and the amount of area devoted to the various treatments in each period.
Thematic maps presents, for example, the age class distribution of a selected period.
Spatial analysis capabilities
SGIS uses facilities of ArcView in order to allow the input or edition of data and spatial constraints. Then, spatial results are showed, enabling a further spatial analysis through the comparison of previous runs where other planning strategies were used.
Abilities to address interdisciplinary, multi-scaled, and political issues
SGIS analysis tool can solve not only forest treatment scheduling problems, but also others like finding mountain sides of greater slopes than 40% suitable as goshawk habitats, corridors of old growth forest relating specific patches, etc.
System
System requirements
- Operating Systems: MS Windows OS
- Other software needed: ArcView, MS Excel
- Development status:
Architecture and major DSS components
The SGIS was developed by synthesizing commercially available software and well-documented software from previous forest research projects in Scandinavia. It was composed by a common menu-driven graphical user interface for the forest model and a GIS within the GIS environment. It was developed by the Visual Basic for applications language (VBA) facilities of ArcView and MS Excel.
GAYA stand simulator and JLP linear programming (LP) program are also used.
Usage
Describe the level of use: Teaching, Research level use, Industry use, Government use
User interface
SGIS is an expert system. Most of the user interfase is developed using GUI, however, the definition of the forest treatments is defined in a command file.
Documentation and support
A user manual (in Norwegain) is provided.
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
- NÆSSET, E. (1997): A spatial decision support system for long-term forest management planning by means of linear programming and a geographical information system, Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research,12:1,77 — 88
