HARVEST
General System description
System Name: HARVEST
Brief overview
HARVEST is a strategic research and planning tool, allowing assessment of the spatial pattern consequences of broad timber management strategies.
Contents
Scope of the system
HARVEST was designed as a strategic research and planning tool, allowing assessment of the spatial pattern consequences of broad timber management strategies. The model is well suited to evaluate alternative strategies, providing comparable predictions about how the alternatives affect the age (or successional stage) distribution of the forest, the spatial distribution of forest interior and edge habitats, and the patch structure of the resulting forest landscape. With HARVEST, the object is not to find a scheduling solution (i.e., determining the order in which individual stands should be harvested), but to assess the spatial pattern consequences of general management strategies. HARVEST has been shown to generate patterns similar to those produced by timber management (Gustafson and Crow 1999).
HARVEST simulates harvest practices that reset the age of forested sites to zero. This includes even-aged timber harvest techniques (e.g., clearcutting, shelterwood, seed tree techniques) and uneven-aged group selection. It is not capable of simulating single tree selection because these treatments do not predictably change forest age. HARVEST allows the user to interactively simulate harvest by forest type and management area. Management Areas are relatively large, multi-stand areas that are to be managed by specific objectives. The user specifies harvest parameters (such as harvest size, rotation age, green-up interval), for a management area and forest type. The process may be repeated for multiple time steps.
Version 6.1 added the ability to simulate conversion of stands to different forest types during the model run, as well as the ability to view all the basic maps (age, type, management) from inside the program. It includes calculation of the fragmentation index GISfrag (Ripple et al. 1991) and links to the spatial pattern analysis software APACK.
System origin
Support for specific issues
- Landscape planning
Support for specific thematic areas of a problem type
- Silvicultural
- Certification
- Conservation
- Policy /intervention alternatives
Capability to support decision making phases
[Intelligence, Design, Choice, Monitoring [1]]
Related systems
- Spec2Harv program also available for automating the conversion of harvest schedules generated by the Forest Service's Spectrum model into script files that can be used by the HARVEST simulation model to simulate the implementation of the Spectrum schedules in a spatially explicit way. Thus, the optimal harvest schedule from Spectrum is simulated spatially and temporally with HARVEST.
- HarvLite is an educational version that offers an easy to use interface and gives the user a feel for what HARVEST has to offer.
Input files must be in an Erdas v7.4+, 8- or 16-bit GIS file format; many common GIS programs can export this format.
Data and data models
Typical spatial extent of application
- Multi-owner forest
Used to over 100m acres
Forest data input
HARVEST operates on a grid-cell (raster) representation of the landscape. HARVEST requires a set of 4 input map files to simulate harvest activity: forest age map, forest type map, management area map, and a stand identification number (ID) map.
Type of information input from user (via GUI)
- Management
- Biophysical
Models
Forest models
- Silvicultural
- Fragmentation
Social models
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.]
HARVEST simulates harvest practices that reset the age of forested sites to a specific age. This includes even-aged timber harvest techniques (e.g., clearcutting, shelterwood, seed tree techniques) and unevenaged group selection. Version 6.1 has some capability to simulate other uneven-aged techniques where such treatments predictably change stand structure, by using stand age as a surrogate for stand structure.
HARVEST allows the user to interactively simulate harvest activities that are targeted to forest type and management area (MA). Management areas are relatively large, multi-stand areas that are to be managed by specific objectives. The user specifies harvest parameters (such as harvest size, rotation age, green-up interval), for a management area and forest type. The process may be repeated for multiple management area/forest type combinations and time steps.
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
Decision-making processes and models
- Simulation
- Evaluation
HARVEST is a standalone simulation model. However, it can be linked to an optimization model via Spec2Harv software.
Output
Types of outputs
Forest age and type maps, plus other spatial analyses (see below).
Spatial analysis capabilities
HARVEST can conduct several analyses of the spatial pattern of the landscape both before and after simulated harvest. The patch structure (patches defined by stand age or forest type) can be analyzed for the entire mapped area or by individual management areas. The amount of forest interior and edge habitat can be calculated and displayed according to the definition of interior given by the user. Version 6.1 adds calculation of the fragmentation index GISfrag (Ripple et al. 1991). Analysis results of simulations can be saved spatially as GIS maps and in tabular form as a text file. An option to submit internal and saved maps to the landscape pattern analysis program APACK (Mladenoff and DeZonia 2004) is now provided.
Abilities to address interdisciplinary, multi-scaled, and political issues
Cross-disciplinary evaluation: Economic & social constraints can be used in Spectrum, and resulting output run through Harvest.
Facilitates social negotiation / learning: Harvest's map-based outputs are likely to be more understandable to a general audience than tabular summaries of forest structures.
System
System requirements
Operating systems: Windows2000, WindowsXP
Other software needed: Input files must be in an Erdas v7.4+, 8- or 16-bit GIS file format; many common GIS programs can export this format.
Development status: Regularly distributed
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.]
64 535 stands 32 767 each management areas & forest types
User interface
User interface quality: Includes a Windows GUI
Complexity of system / user interface: Relatively low, can be up and running in a few hours.
Documentation and support
Documentation: Manual included with download.
Support: Contact developer by e-mail.
Training: Sample dataset available on website. Occaisional workshops.
Installation
Prerequisite knowledge needed: Understanding of forest management terminology.
Cost: Free
Demo:
References
Cited references
External resources
Website: http://nrs.fs.fed.us/tools/harvest/
Publications: Available on website
