MONTE

General System description

System name: MONTE

Brief overview

MONTE is a forest management planning software that allows both evaluating the current estate of a forest and preparing specific management plans for a stated temporal goal.

System origin

• Developed by Timo Pukkala, Antoni Trasobares and Marc Palahí.
• MONTE has been applied to several regions in Spain such as Catalonia, Castilla-León and Aragón. If reliable data (digital terrain model, digital maps, forest inventory, etc.) and models (growth and yield models, volume functions, etc.) are available, the system can be easily applied to other regions in Spain or in another country.

Support for specific issues

Harvest scheduling, timber production, yield prediction, non-wood forest productions, recreation facilities, biodiversity conservation, and landscape quality.

Support for specific thematic areas of a problem type

• Silvicultural
• Certification
• Conservation
• Development choices / land use zoning
• Policy/intervention alternatives

Capability to support decision making phases

• Intelligence:

  The current conditions of the forest can be analysed and the management goals established.

• Design:

  The simulation tool run the different management possibilities among the restrictions imposed by the input data.

• Choice:

  Heuristic tools are used in order to ensure the best management option is the chosen one by the manager.

• Monitor:

  No implemented.

Related systems

• Monsu

Data and data models

Typical spatial extent of application

The normal spatial application level of MONTE is the forest level, holding various stands.

Forest data input

MONTE input information are inventory data that can be imported from files with .xls or .mdb extensions.

The input data required depends on the characteristics of the stand. Thus, for each diameter class the species, diameter and number of stems is needed, and then, site index, age and dominant height for even-aged stands, and altitude, continentality, and five-last-years growth for uneven-aged stands have to be inputted.

In order to allow the 3D results visualization some geographic files must be provided: a digital elevation model (DEM) where stands have to be defined, each silviculture treatment alternative, and the optimization module result.

Type of information input from user (via GUI)

Forest management goals have to be selected within the ones showed in the user interface. More than one goal may be selected, in order to adress forest multi-objective management. The showed goals are both yield and economic goals and conservationist and leisure goals. Once selected, goals must be weighted according to the user preferences, in order to proceed towards the optimization module.

Models

Forest models

Models implemented in MONTE simulate silvicultural treatment schedules according to the stand variables previously given.

Currently MONTE has implemented models for the management of either even-aged, uneven-aged, pures or mixed forest stands of the following species: Pinus uncinata, Pinus sylvestris, Pinus nigra, Pinus halepensis, Pinus pinea, Abies alba, and some hardwoods.

Social models

Recreation can be selected among the management goals.

Decision Support

Definition of management interventions

Manager is advised on which silvicultural treatments, how, and when (time of harvest, regeneration methods, thinnings, etc.) should be done in order to achieve the previously chosen management goals.

Typical temporal scale of application

Tactical planning.

Types of decisions supported

• Management level
  • strategic decisions
  • operating control decisions
• Management function

Decision-making processes and models

• Genetic algorithms
• Tabu search
• Simulated annealing
• Random ascent
• HERO

Output

Types of outputs

The heuristically generated solution is displayed as a bar chart where reached and goal values are shown.

For each management stand, the future development can be displayed with a static visualization tool, together with some recommendations about the treatments that should be done within a short time period in order to achieve the proposed goals.

A 3D visualization tool enables landscape analyses of the selected management schedules. Also, the creation of VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language) files for each stand is allowed, enabling the visualization of the stand results in other software with this capability (common web-browsers, etc.).

Spatial analysis capabilities

Visualization tools are implemented within the MONTE framework, driving to spatial development and landscape analyses.

References

External resources

• foreco technologies website
• PALAHÍ, M., T. PUKKALA et A. TRASOBARES (2004): Presentación del sistema de planificación forestal MONTE. Revista Montes 4º Trimestre 2004, Nº 78 (In Spanish).