INTEGRATION OF FORESTRY DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS IN GIS

Abstract

Landscape characteristics underpin the ability of the forestry industry to deliver in an increasingly complex operational environment. However, the range of site types within the British public forest estate includes many with soil or exposure constraints. Until recently it was not possible to effectively assess the scale of constraints and spatially allocate land appropriately to the objectives suggested by policy makers. Stand level forestry decision support systems have been developed to address these issues but it is difficult to incorporate their outputs into the spatial forest plans, limiting their operational use. The MOTIVE project (EU 7th Framework Programme) provided an opportunity to integrate stand level tools with spatial inventory data. The output is a comprehensive GIS layer containing silvicultural, geophysical and climate data, and site-specific decision support system outputs. This paper describes the climate and inventory data, models, GIS methods, the visualisation of outputs, and the impact on stakeholders.