An Evaluation of the Use of Simulated Annealing to Optimize Thinning Rates for Single Even-Aged Stands

Abstract

We evaluated the potential of simulated annealing as a reliable method for optimizing thinning rates for single even-aged stands. Four types of yield models were used as benchmark models to examine the algorithm’s versatility. Thinning rate, which was constrained to 0–50% every 5 years at stand ages of 10–45 years, was optimized to maximize the net present value for one fixed rotation term (50 years). The best parameters for the simulated annealing were chosen from 113patterns, using the mean of the net present value from 39 runs to ensure the best performance. We compared the solutions with those from coarse full enumeration to evaluate the method’s reliability and with 39 runs of random search to evaluate its efficiency. In contrast to random search, the best run of simulated annealing for each of the four yield models resulted in a better solution than coarse full enumeration. However, variations in the objective function for two yield models obtained with simulated annealing were significantly larger than those of random search. In conclusion, simulated annealing with optimized parameters is more efficient for optimizing thinning rates than random search. However, it is necessary to execute multiple runs to obtain reliable solutions.