Abstract
The Special Issue “Decision Support to Address Multiple Ecosystem Services in Forest Management Planning” includes nine research papers, two review papers, and a white paper presenting highlights of focused research initiatives. The papers provide a comprehensive framework for the analysis and review of advanced Decision Support Systems (DSS), which are multi-criteria decision approaches. Their emphasis is on how these methods and tools may contribute to address the multi-functionality of forests, to support scenario and trade-off analysis of ecosystem services, and to represent interests and behavior of various stakeholders. In the context of forest ecosystem management, a need has arisen to consider various dimensions in the design of the planning process. This calls for the development of appropriate mixes of decision making tools and methods and for its testing with the support of case studies. In this Special Issue, comments on, and implications of, the improvement of innovative decision methods and systems to address the provision of a wide range of ecosystem services and support scenario analysis with the active involvement of stakeholders are presented.
Highlights
Increasing demand for various ecosystem services, while addressing the impacts of management interventions and natural disturbances on future forest conditions and ecosystem services (ES), poses a major challenge in forest management planning
The challenge can be met by developing a conceptual framework for ecosystem management that may be implemented by information systems to help analyze alternative management options and support a structured participation for responsible action
An effective information system provides the necessary combination of tools and techniques to formulate complex decision problems, and it takes advantage of the integrated functionality of spatial database management systems, simulation tools, and management science techniques to forecast the consequences of various courses of actions on forest dynamics and to provide different reporting capabilities for visualization and documentation of management decisions
Summary
Increasing demand for various ecosystem services (e.g., conservation of biodiversity, recreation and provision of timber among others), while addressing the impacts of management interventions and natural disturbances on future forest conditions and ecosystem services (ES), poses a major challenge in forest management planning. The challenge can be met by developing a conceptual framework for ecosystem management that may be implemented by information systems to help analyze alternative management options and support a structured participation for responsible action. The Special Issue covers various scientific endeavors and achievements that may be summarized and structured around three main sections: (i) framework and multifunctionality of forests, (ii) multi-criteria methods and decision support systems, and (iii) case studies with simulation and scenario analysis. The recent developments in decision support approaches in forest management, targeting the provision of ecosystem services are reported. This section explores approaches to address concerns about the provision of ecosystem services under climate change and forest owner behavior scenarios with the support of simulation, and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA)
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