IN PROGRESS

General System description

System name: Practical Sustainable Forest Management

Acronym: Practi-SFM

Brief overview

The Practi-SFM system is designed to facilitate the practical implementation of SFM in the management of privately owned forests in Ireland. The system comprises a multi-resource inventory protocol and a MS Excel-based DSS ^[1].

Scope of the system

Practi-SFM supports the development of a ten-year forest management plan based on a detailed multi-resource (timber and non-timber) inventory. It allows the user to develop a number of different plans which can be compared across a series of headings, for example, volume harvested, total clearfell area, fellings adjacent to watercourses, fellings in visually sensitive areas, etc. The system also facilitates collecting and updating a series of non-timber data that may be useful in achieving third party forest management certification.

System origin

• This system is the result of a COFORD-funded research project based in University College Dublin, Ireland. The project was initated in 2001. The project leader was Prof. Maarten Nieuwenhuis and the project researcher was Dr. Frank Barrett.
• The multi-resource inventory protocol was based on the criteria and indicators identified in the Irish National Forest Standard (^[2]). Existing methodologies were selected and tested on a diverse privately owned estate in County Wicklow and further tested on a number of other forest areas typical of privately owned forests in Ireland. These methodologies were then adapted for use in Irish privately owned forests.
• The project is now in Phase II of development. It is being field-tested by Irish forest management companies with a view to developing its functionality and the inventory collection procedures. Phase II will also examine the suitability of MS Excel as a basis for the DSS and investigate the possibility of introducing optimisation at stand level. This would result in selecting one option per stand based on a utility function which would take into account the weighted objectives of the owner for the forest as a whole and would simplify the planning process.

Support for specific issues

The Practi-SFM system offers support for the user in selecting the most suitable forest management options, on a per stand basis, that will ensure that the forest as a whole is managed according to the principles of sustainable forest management.

Support for specific thematic areas of a problem type

• Silvicultural
• Certification
• Conservation
• Restoration
• Transportation
• Sustainability impact assessment (SIA)

Capability to support decision making phases

• Intelligence (searching for conditions that call for decisions): the system identifies the stands that are due for harvesting
• Design (inventing, developing, and analysing possible courses of action): the system offers a number of options for the timing and levels of appropriate harvesting operations; also offers users the opportunity to develop a number of different scenarios
• Choice (selecting a course of action from those available): the user manually selects the preferred option based on the objectives for the forest
• Monitor - the system facilitates monitoring over a 10 year period if the inventory is updated at the expiration of the plan

Related systems

The Practi-SFM system is currently not related to any other system.

Data and data models

Typical spatial extent of application

The system is designed to supporting the planning requirements of a privately owned forest holding.

Forest data input

The data input is at stand level. Conventional timber plot data is used (plot area, plot slope, mean height, DBH distribution, etc.) as well as a range of non-timber data relating to stand health, terrain conditions, amenity use, landscape sensitivity and a range of variables used to report on biodiversity (deadwood, invasive species, evidence of wildlife).

Type of information input from user (via GUI)

The input information is as above.

Models

Forest models

The Practi-SFM system uses the following models:

• British Forestry Commission (BFC) Yield Models
• Irish Dynamic (ID) Yield Models

Social models

The system does not use social models but the multi-resource inventory requires input on the historical and cultural values of the site, amenity use, adjacent dwellings and the landscape sensitivity of the site.

Decision Support

Definition of management interventions

The manager can intervene in all forest management decisions - harvesting scheduling, thinning intensity, type of thinning, clearfelling, species selection, underplanting, costs associated with all operations and incomes. Currently, the Practi-SFM system lists all the management options that exist for a stand based on the BFC and ID yield models (user defined operations are also possible) and simulates the growth and output associated with the selected options.

Typical temporal scale of application

The system supports the generation of ten year management plans with operations scheduled over five two year periods.

Types of decisions supported

• Management level
  • strategic decisions
  • administrative decisions
  • operating control decisions
• Planning decisions
  • organising decisions
  • command decisions
  • control decisions
  • co-ordination decisions
• Decision making situation
  • unilateral
  • collegial
  • bargaining / participative decision making

Decision-making processes and models

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• 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

The output includes a schedule of operations over the five two year periods with detailed associated costs and incomes. The system also includes a facility to map certain features, for example, harvest areas adjacent to watercourses and harvesting in visually sensitive areas.

Spatial analysis capabilities

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• 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

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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: used in teaching and under development for potential use by private forest sector in Ireland.

Architecture and major DSS components

The current version of Practi-SFM is written in VBA. 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

The system is currently used to support undergraduate learning for forest management and multi-resource inventory development.

Computational limitations

The system is designed to support a ten year management period.

User interface

Familiarity with MS Excel is required to operate the system.

Documentation and support

A user manual for the DSS has been developed to support the user with inputting data and plan generation.

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

1. ↑ Barrett, F., Somers, M., and Nieuwenhuis, M. (2007) Practi-SFM - an Operational Multi-Resource Inventory Protocol for Sustainable Forest Management in Sustainable Forestry: from Monitoring and Modelling to Knowledge Management and Policy Science (eds. Reynolds, K., Thomson, A., Kohl, M., Shannon, M., Ray, D. and Rennolls)
2. ↑ Irish Forest Service (2000) Irish National Forest Standard. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food, Dublin, Ireland

External resources