Assisting Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Policy Planning with the Sim4Tree Decision Support System
As European forest policy increasingly focuses on multiple ecosystem services and participatory decision making, forest managers and policy planners have a need for integrated, user-friendly, broad spectrum decision support systems (DSS) that address risks and uncertainties, such as climate change,...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2015-03-01
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| Series: | Forests |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/6/4/859 |
| _version_ | 1811197921231634432 |
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| author | Floris Dalemans Paul Jacxsens Jos Van Orshoven Vincent Kint Pieter Moonen Bart Muys |
| author_facet | Floris Dalemans Paul Jacxsens Jos Van Orshoven Vincent Kint Pieter Moonen Bart Muys |
| author_sort | Floris Dalemans |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | As European forest policy increasingly focuses on multiple ecosystem services and participatory decision making, forest managers and policy planners have a need for integrated, user-friendly, broad spectrum decision support systems (DSS) that address risks and uncertainties, such as climate change, in a robust way and that provide credible advice in a transparent manner, enabling effective stakeholder involvement. The Sim4Tree DSS has been accordingly developed as a user-oriented, modular and multipurpose toolbox. Sim4Tree supports strategic and tactical forestry planning by providing simulations of forest development, ecosystem services potential and economic performance through time, from a regional to a stand scale, under various management and climate regimes. Sim4Tree allows comparing the performance of different scenarios with regard to diverse criteria so as to optimize management choices. This paper explains the concept, characteristics, functionalities, components and use of the current Sim4Tree DSS v2.5, which was parameterized for the region of Flanders, Belgium, but can be flexibly adapted to allow a broader use. When considering the current challenges for forestry DSS, an effort has been made towards the participatory component and towards integration, while the lack of robustness remains Sim4Tree’s weakest point. However, its structural flexibility allows many possibilities for future improvement and extension. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T01:22:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c9b5162a705d450c9d85dc32cf0dfd07 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1999-4907 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T01:22:23Z |
| publishDate | 2015-03-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Forests |
| spelling | doaj.art-c9b5162a705d450c9d85dc32cf0dfd072022-12-22T03:53:46ZengMDPI AGForests1999-49072015-03-016485987810.3390/f6040859f6040859Assisting Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Policy Planning with the Sim4Tree Decision Support SystemFloris Dalemans0Paul Jacxsens1Jos Van Orshoven2Vincent Kint3Pieter Moonen4Bart Muys5Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Celestijnenlaan 200E, BE-3001 Leuven, BelgiumSpatial Applications Division Leuven, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Celestijnenlaan 200E, BE-3001 Leuven, BelgiumDivision of Forest, Nature and Landscape, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Celestijnenlaan 200E, BE-3001 Leuven, BelgiumDivision of Forest, Nature and Landscape, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Celestijnenlaan 200E, BE-3001 Leuven, BelgiumDivision of Forest, Nature and Landscape, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Celestijnenlaan 200E, BE-3001 Leuven, BelgiumDivision of Forest, Nature and Landscape, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Celestijnenlaan 200E, BE-3001 Leuven, BelgiumAs European forest policy increasingly focuses on multiple ecosystem services and participatory decision making, forest managers and policy planners have a need for integrated, user-friendly, broad spectrum decision support systems (DSS) that address risks and uncertainties, such as climate change, in a robust way and that provide credible advice in a transparent manner, enabling effective stakeholder involvement. The Sim4Tree DSS has been accordingly developed as a user-oriented, modular and multipurpose toolbox. Sim4Tree supports strategic and tactical forestry planning by providing simulations of forest development, ecosystem services potential and economic performance through time, from a regional to a stand scale, under various management and climate regimes. Sim4Tree allows comparing the performance of different scenarios with regard to diverse criteria so as to optimize management choices. This paper explains the concept, characteristics, functionalities, components and use of the current Sim4Tree DSS v2.5, which was parameterized for the region of Flanders, Belgium, but can be flexibly adapted to allow a broader use. When considering the current challenges for forestry DSS, an effort has been made towards the participatory component and towards integration, while the lack of robustness remains Sim4Tree’s weakest point. However, its structural flexibility allows many possibilities for future improvement and extension.http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/6/4/859decision support systems (DSS)forest management and policy planningecosystem servicesmulti-criteria decision analysis (MCDA)Flanders |
| spellingShingle | Floris Dalemans Paul Jacxsens Jos Van Orshoven Vincent Kint Pieter Moonen Bart Muys Assisting Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Policy Planning with the Sim4Tree Decision Support System Forests decision support systems (DSS) forest management and policy planning ecosystem services multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) Flanders |
| title | Assisting Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Policy Planning with the Sim4Tree Decision Support System |
| title_full | Assisting Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Policy Planning with the Sim4Tree Decision Support System |
| title_fullStr | Assisting Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Policy Planning with the Sim4Tree Decision Support System |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assisting Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Policy Planning with the Sim4Tree Decision Support System |
| title_short | Assisting Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Policy Planning with the Sim4Tree Decision Support System |
| title_sort | assisting sustainable forest management and forest policy planning with the sim4tree decision support system |
| topic | decision support systems (DSS) forest management and policy planning ecosystem services multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) Flanders |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/6/4/859 |
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