Revision as of 14:24, 25 May 2010

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 (^[1]). The system comprises a multi-resource inventory protocol and a MS Excel-based DSS.

Scope of the system

This tool allows the user to develop a forest management plan based on timber and multi-resource inventories. The system facilitates the user in developing a number of different plans which can be compared over a series of headings, including volume harvested, total clearfell area, fellings adjacent to watercourses, fellings in visually sensitive areas, etc. This tool also facilitates the collection and updating of a series of non-timber data that may be useful in achieving third party forest management certification.

System origin

• This system was developed as a result of a COFORD-funded research project based in University College Dublin, Ireland. The project leader was Prof. Maarten Nieuwenhuis and the project researcher was Dr. Frank Barrett.
• The multi-resource inventory protocol was developed and tested largely based on a diverse privately owned estate in County Wicklow. It was further tested on a number of other forest areas typical of privately owned forests in Ireland.
• 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 streamlining the inventory collection procedures. Phase II will also examine the suitability of 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 - (+ explicit description of the support given by the DSS)
• Design (+ explicit description of the support given by the DSS)
• Choice - user has a high degree of choice in relation to management options, species selection, costings, values
• Monitor - the system facilitates monitoring over a 10 year period if the inventory is updated at the expiration of the plan

Related systems

THESE NOT SYSTEMS? NO SYSTEMS RELATED?

• British Forestry Commission Yield Models
• Irish Dynamic Yield Models

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

Growth, Yield

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 - harvestin scheduling, thinning intensity, type of thinning, clearfelling, species selection, underplanting, costs asociated with all operations and incomes.

??? Existence of prescription writer, simple enumeration of all possibilities, scenario simulation , etc.

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

• Management function
• planning decisions
  • organizing decisions
  • command decisions
  • control decisions
  • coordination decisions
• decision making situation
  • unilateral
  • collegial
  • Bargaining / participative decision making

Decision-making processes and models

• 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

• 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

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

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

User interface

Describe the quality of user interface and the Prerequisite knowledge for using the system

Documentation and support

Describe the connection to Help-system and possibilities for assistance, as well as the required training and user support levels

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)

External resources