Allowing for spatial consideration in long-term forest planning by linking linear programming with simulated annealing

Abstract

This paper presents three approaches for including spatial considerations, in terms of continuous areas of old forest, in a long-term forest planning problem with even-flow and inventory constraints. Two of the approaches integrate linear programming with simulated annealing into one single solution procedure. Simulated annealing is used for solving the spatial dimension of the problem, while linear programming is used for solving the non-spatial dimension. The third approach uses only simulated annealing for solving the entire management problem. All three approaches are in a case study applied to a landscape consisting of 755 stands in northern Sweden. The results from this case study indicate that the approaches that use both simulated annealing and linear programming produce more effective solutions in terms of net present value and spatial layout for this landscape than the approach that only uses simulated annealing.