TEAMS
General System description
System name: Terrestrial Ecosystem Analysis and Modelling System
Acronym: TEAMS
Brief overview
TEAMS is a tactical planning system designed to aid forest managers in developing site-specific management schedules that will conform to standards and guidelines specified by forest plans and will achieve stated goals.
Contents
Scope of the system
TEAMS is a stand analysis level tool who provides alternatives such as various harvesting and thinning options. TEAMS may be used in three ways:
- Managers may directly specify how each stand within the management area should be treated. The system will then project and display on a computer screen the results of the prescribed treatment schedule that managers can subsequently compare to goals, standards, and guidelines. Alternatively,
- managers may specify goals, standards, and guidelines for the unit, and TEAMS will produce an optimal treatment schedule and project results. Or,
- a combination of the first two options may be employed with prescriptions for some stands specified by the managers and others determined by the system.
It is operational only for USA's southwestern ponderosa pine (Pinus brachyptera Engelm.). Also, transportation and road systems have not been incorporated.
System origin
- It was developed in the late 80's by a team from the Northern Arizona University led by the professor W.W. Covington.
- how was it developed
- is it a commercial product
- It was used by the Menominee Tribal Enterprises in preparing a forest plan[1].
Support for specific issues
It tried to be at his moment a bridge for planners and foresters in the gap then existing between strategic planning and implementation.
Support for specific thematic areas of a problem type
- Silvicultural
- Certification
- Development choices / land use zoning
Data and data models
Typical spatial extent of application
The system was developed for use at the landscape level.
Forest data input
Generally available stand inventory data has to be entered into R:Base 5000, and the stand boundaries and other pertinent map features have to be digitized using ARC/INFO. TEAMS employs the R:Base files as input.
Type of information input from user (via GUI)
TEAMS users can enter information on recreational development alternatives and range improvement options.They have to enter management information for each stratum including: desired structure (even- or all-aged), allowable management options, and optimal, minimum, and maximum rotation ages for even-aged cover types. Also, they have to elect an objective function (e.g., maximize present net value, maximize water yield, or minimize costs) and specify constraint levels for any of the constraint options provided (e.g., maximum saw-timber harvest, minimum acreage of elk cover, or maximum budget).
Users can also specify goals for an array of outputs along with weights that reflect the importance of goal deviations. The objective function minimizes the sum of deviations from the specified goals.
Models
Forest models
Available forest goals incorporated in the model include:
- ecologically appropriate cover types on each habitat type,
- optimal structure (even- or all-aged) for each cover type,
- regulation on optimal rotation age for even-aged cover types, and
- cover type diversity within each habitat type and forest-wide.
In addition, desired harvest acreage by period may be specified for each cover type and in total. The strategic model controls harvest flows on a period basis over the entire planning horizon and the tactical model controls harvest flows on an annual basis over the first period.
Decision Support
Definition of management interventions
Depending on the type of simulation chosen.
Typical temporal scale of application
Tactical and strategic planning.
Decision-making processes and models
Both the strategic and tactical models employ goal programming. The tactical model utilizes a mixed integer formulation.
Output
Types of outputs
Outputs are exported to R-Base for report generation. This outputs are yields, costs, and net benefits, associated with implementation of the optimal solution (or user-specified prescriptions). It also forecasts future stand structures as they develop over time.
TEAMS projects outcomes of treatment alternatives, and displays results in graphic, tabular, and map forms.
Spatial analysis capabilities
Some spatial analysis and constraints are accounted. For example no regeneration harvest are allowed in adjacent stands within any 30-year period.
Abilities to address interdisciplinary, multi-scaled, and political issues
The model is concerned only with achieving a desired future forest condition and output flows. Social, economic, and biophysical concerns are represented as goals which are externally developed by users.
System
System requirements
- Operating Systems: MS-DOS
- Other software needed: R-Base for DOS, KETRON'S MIP III with C-WHIZ.
Architecture and major DSS components
It was written in FORPLAN programming language.
TEAMS is an integrated set of programs consisting of:
- R:Base 5000, a relational database management system,
- CLOUT, a database query system that is a companion to R:Base,
- ARC/INFO, a geographic information system,
- ECOSIM, a multiresource forest management simulation system that was expanded to include economic algorithms for timber and range as well as additional wildlife algorithms,
- RANREC, a program that calculates the economic consequences of recreation and range development and other user-specified costs and benefits,
- LINDO, a linear programming package,
- USER, a subroutine that generates the matrix for LINDO,
- Microsoft CHART, a graphics package,
- GRAPHS, a program that calculates the consequences of implementing the linear programming solution for input to CHART,
- COMPARE, a program that translates multiresource outputs and economic data from two to four LINDO solutions at a time so that these data can be compared graphically using CHART and geographically using ARC/INFO, and
- TABLES, a program that generates summary tables to complement the CHART output.
From these programms, R:Base 5000, CLOUT, ARC/INFO, LINDO, and CHART were commercially available software packages. ECOSIM was developed by the Forest Service and maintained by the School of Forestry from the Northern Arizona University. Others were packages specigically created for this occasion.
Usage
It has been used in teaching at the Northern Arizona University, and informally in some national forest plans.
Computational limitations
Strategic runs required less than 30 minutes. The tactical model run in 3-4 hours. Anyway this data are from 1997.
User interface
The system was designed for sophisticated users.
Documentation and support
Training sessions for TEAMS have not been developed yet. Programme is well-documented.
References
Cited references
- ↑ MOWRER, H.T., (1997): Decision support systems for ecosystem management: an evaluation of existing systems. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO, USA, General Technical Report RM-GTR-296, p. 154.
