Forest Management Problems Research Articles

A learning heuristic for integrating spatial and temporal detail in forest planning

AbstractWe present a learning heuristic using dynamic programming (DP) formulations to address both spatial and temporal detail in multiobjective forest management planning. The problem is decomposed into smaller problems to avoid the curse of dimensionality associated with DP. The heuristic learns from multiple decomposed problem formulations to identify stands assigned the same management option regardless of formulation. Consistently managed stands are recognized, and the problem is eventually distilled to the most difficult to solve portions of the forest. The heuristic is demonstrated on a forest management problem with short‐lived core area wildlife habitat, where temporal detail is important. The problem is large due to the number of stand‐level management timing options and associated interactions with the management timings of nearby stands. Results show solution improvement along with substantial time savings over previously used heuristics. The learning heuristic enables analysis of large problems that emerge with high levels of spatial and temporal detail.Recommendations for Resource Managers: Adding spatial and temporal detail to forest planning models can improve the utility of the solution for some applications such as wildlife habitat management. Decomposing a large optimization problem into linked, smaller subproblems can speed the solution search time. Learning from problem decomposition solutions to formulate subsequent search attempts can improve the quality of a solution.

Protective forest management problems in Russia

The distribution of forests by categories of protection is analyzed in accordance with the current normative documents on forest management in the territory of the Russian Federation. It is noted that protective forests are divided into 4 groups of protection categories; each of them includes specific types of protection categories. A considerable number of protection category types involves difficulties in working out the system of silvicultural measures for each of them. It should be noted that special purpose similarities of forest management in a number of protection categories types makes possible to unite them. The rules of wood harvesting, reforestation rules and care of forests rules present only general conception of forest management in protective forests. The standard plantations carrying out one or another protective functions at most, has not yet been worked out till now. As a result when planning and carrying out silvicultural measures experts in the field are forced to take non - standard solutions that infrequently results in disputed situations in work carried out estimation. Besides, maximum effect of measures accomplished is failed to be achieved. As a way to solve the problem it is offered to work out recommendations on zone (subzone) - typologic base in each of the specific protection categories. An increase in the area of protective forests can be achieved through the creation of artificial plantations on disturbed lands and lands that have come out of agricultural use. Thus, the plantations of Sukachev’s larch (Larix Sukaczewii Dyl.) created on the former arable land at the age of 61 have a stock of 740 m3 / ha with an average growth of 12.1 m3 / ha per year. The latter makes it possible to improve the ecological situation in the region and largely solve the problem of carbon dioxide deposition.

Геоинформационные исследования и картографирование растительности (дайджест по материалам конференции Интеркарто. Интергис. 1994–2020)

Proceedings of the International conference (ИнтерКарто. ИнтерГИС, Russia) devoted to geographical information systems for sustainable development of territories have been published annually since 1994. The articles discuss theoretical and methodological aspects of geoinformation support for environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainable de­velop­ment, issues of geoinformatics, cartography, remote sensing of the Earth, problems of environmental sustainability and environmental impact assessment. Over a quarter of a century, the conference proceedings got more than 125 articles related to the use of geoinformation technologies to the study and mapping of vegetation. The review of proceedings gives the concrete examples how to solve problems of vegetation mapping using GIS, it is focused on publications providing some examples of GIS appli­cation to the vegetation studies. The review is organized into thematic sections according the field of application of Geoinformatics: 1.Vegetation, 2. Dynamics, state and ecological functions of vegetation, 3. Biodiversity and its assessment, 4. Plant resources, 5. Monitoring of vegetation. The Vegetation section contains publications on vegetation studies and mapping performed for some regions of Russia — the North of the Far East, the Republic of Sakha (Yaku­tia), the Tyva Republic, Central Siberia, and others. More than half of the articles are devoted to vegetation dynamics, state and ecological functions of vegetation at different hierarchical levels. Some papers present the results of the studies based on new types of information sources (photographs) and visualization methods (animation). The use of geoinformation technologies to study biological diversity was included in the agenda of five conference sessions and later reflected in more than ten publications. They cover the development and creation of GIS, the use of geoinformation technologies for the analysis, assessment and mapping of biodiversity, for its monitoring and conservation. Quite a large number of articles are devoted to the study of forest resources. GIS technologies were used to solve problems of forest management, cartometric analysis of forested areas, determination of taxation indicators, systematization of forest conditions, etc. Examples of geoinformation versatile research for medicinal plant resources are given to assess their quality, resources and productivity in the region, to identify growing areas, including ones to be protected. Most of the published materials concerning to vegetation monitoring mainly relate to forests and forest management.

Integrated forest harvest planning and road-building model with consideration of economies of scale

We consider the problem of tactical forest management over a 5-year horizon with yearly periods. The main decisions made consider which harvest areas to cut in each period, the flow of timber from an area to each wood-processing mill to satisfy its annual demand, and which roads to build to access a harvest area not connected to the existing road network. The goal is to minimize the total transportation and road-building costs subject to budget limitations. To explore the benefits of economies of scale (EOS) in road construction, we incorporated this notion in the proposed model. Then, the efficiency of the obtained solution is compared with the model without EOS. The proposed model is a mixed-integer linear program, including several timber assortments and multiple periods. We validated the model for a realistic case in the context of the province of Quebec. The results demonstrate that consideration of EOS significantly reduces the total cost by about 5.3%. In the EOS solution, the road segments that are built every year are very concentrated in specific parts of the region, allowing a road-building company to take advantage of EOS. Moreover, this solution provides a much more efficient timber transportation plan.

Экономические проблемы лесоустройства на современном этапе развития

Research of problems of forest management, formation and development of forest management. Clarification of features in the system «management and planning in the field of use, protection and other functions of forests», according to the current Forest code of the Russian Federation and the concept «forest legislation of the Russian Federation based on the principles of sustainable forest management, conservation of their biological diversity and other useful functions of forests». From the point of view of the practice and system of strategic forest management, specific issues regarding forest management objects are highlighted. Analytical method for obtaining information about natural-historical and economic conditions of the area where the forest management object is located. Analysis of economic activities and study of past experience of forest management in the field of use, protection, protection and reproduction of forests. On the basis of the Forest code, allocated successive stages of forest management such as the design of forest areas and forest parks, the design of operational, protective and reserve forests, as well as the design of measures for the protection and reproduction of forests. Based on the theoretical review and analysis presented in the relationship of the system «results-costs», the main directions of development of forest management are determined. Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty consists in defining the concept of competitiveness of forest capital. Achieving competitive advantages is possible on the basis of sustainable development as a factor of ensuring economic stability. The structure of the forest management process includes progressive elements based on a balance between the growth and depletion of natural resources.

Провальное госуправление лесопользованием в России (на примере Иркутской области)

<span>В статье анализируются современные проблемы национального лесопользования на примере Иркутской области как ведущего региона по запасам и заготовкам древесины. Экстенсивное лесопользование в регионе при низком объёме лесовосстановления сопровождается хищническими незаконными рубками, большими потерями от пожаров и др., что в целом характеризует современное лесопользование как «катастрофически истощительное». Такая ситуация сложилась в том числе в результате неэффективной государственной системы управления лесом, как на законодательном, так и на исполнительном уровнях, которые в нашем случае рассматриваются в рамках политических и административных провалов государства. Причиной провалов государственной системы управления стали действия разнообразных институциональных ловушек, на одной из которых</span><span class="myHorizontalScaleForEmDashSpaceBefore"> </span><span>–</span><span class="myHorizontalScaleForEmDashSpaceAfter"> </span><span>институционально-психологической</span><span class="myHorizontalScaleForEmDashSpaceBefore"> </span><span>–</span><span class="myHorizontalScaleForEmDashSpaceAfter"> </span><span>автор особо заостряет внимание. Последняя, по его мнению, актуализирует роль управленческой рефлексии, нацеленной на кооперацию всех субъектов управленческого процесса. Изменить ситуацию неэффективного управления лесом сможет повышение роли внутренней рефлективности управления посредством реализации национального управленческого проекта.</span>

Multiobjective record‐to‐record travel metaheuristic method for solving forest supply chain management problems with economic and environmental objectives

AbstractMultiobjective optimization is increasingly used to assist decision‐making in forest management when multiple objectives are considered and conflict with each other. Since forest management problems may deal with combinatorial optimization, as the scale of a problem increases, the computation complexity increases exponentially beyond the practical use of exact methods. We propose a multiple‐objective metaheuristic method, referred to as multiobjective record‐to‐record travel (MRRT), to solve such challenging problems. We examined the performance of MRRT and compared it to a mixed integer programming (MIP) optimizer on a forest supply chain multiobjective optimization problem that simultaneously maximizes net revenues and greenhouse gas emission savings from salvage harvest and utilization of beetle‐killed forest stands. Testing on four cases of different problem sizes showed that MRRT performed satisfactorily in approximating the actual Pareto fronts in terms of convergence and coverage, and the distribution of solutions was approximately uniform. The gap between MRRT and MIP solutions increased as the problem size increased. But MRRT produced all solutions within a reasonable computation time, where the computational advantage over MIP was more apparent for large‐scale test cases.Recommendations for Resource Managers Multiobjective optimization shows trade‐offs among conflicting objectives and assists decision‐making to enhance sustainable forest management. Multiobjective record‐to‐record travel (MRRT) has a simple algorithm structure and easy parameterization process so that it is adaptable to solve various multiobjective optimization problems. MRRT produces high‐quality solutions for large‐scale multiobjective optimization problems within a reasonable computation time, which promotes its applicability in practice.

Класифікація лісовкритих територій за мультиспектральними даними

В статті досліджено питання поєднання сучасних відкритих геоінформаційних систем та даних дистанційного зондування Землі в задачах лісовпорядкування. На основі існуючих планів лісонасаджень розроблено класифікатори лісових порід дослідного об’єкта з урахуванням вікових груп та без їх урахування. Здійснено контрольовану класифікацію дослідних об’єктів та проведено оцінку точності отриманих результатів. Встановлено, що точність визначення окремих класів на основі пропонованої методики є тотожною.

Management and Social Problems Linked to the Human Use of European Urban and Suburban Forests

This review regards the management and social problems in European urban and suburban forests linked to their maintenance and human use. They can be divided into major categories: forest management problems (e.g., the low priority of urban forestry, various or diffused urban forest management, lack of management plans or lack of sufficient funds); the social reception of forest works and forests (e.g., emotional reactions to total clear-cutting, negative evaluation of logging traces, negative evaluation of poor tourist infrastructure, specific expectations concerning a model forest: e.g., tall, of low density, mixed, old); and relations between forest users (problems related to e.g., crowding, fast-moving people, the presence of dogs, littering, thefts or noisy behaviour). Here, special attention is paid to problems and negative interactions, as they are challenges to forest management, as well as to the development of plans, strategies, and policies, both in relation to existent forests and those planned in various parts of Europe. Taking into account the feelings and expectations of forest users concerning forests, forest works/management, and infrastructure, as well as their attitude to other forest users, may reduce conflicts concerning various kinds of forest perception and use, and (with the support of societal education) may help to increase the sense of social responsibility for the “shared” forests. The presented findings are expected to be practical and useful for the management of urban and suburban forests, regardless of the location, as a type of checklist of possible problems, that may prove to be important and up-to-date in a particular location.

Decision-Making in Forestry: A Review of the Hybridisation of Multiple Criteria and Group Decision-Making Methods

The degree of complexity in forest management has increased in the last few decades, not only due to the inclusion of specific new issues (e.g., climate change, social protection, etc.), but also because these new, as well as classic, issues have to be dealt with in a context characterised by multiple conflicting criteria that are evaluated by different stakeholders. Nowadays, the multicriteria issue enjoys a relatively sound tradition in forest management. However, the consideration of several stakeholders, which requires the formulation of management models within a collective decision-making setting, is not that advanced. This paper aims to provide a critical overview of forestry case studies that have been published in primary journals and that deal with multiple criteria and several stakeholders. Based on this overview, some highlights of the most promising methods were obtained, and recommendations for the fruitful use of these combined methodologies for dealing with numerous types of forest management problems are provided.

Measuring the relative performance of forest management units: a chance-constrained DEA model in the presence of the nondiscretionary factor

In this study, we develop a marginal chance-constrained data envelopment analysis (DEA) model in the presence of nondiscretionary inputs and hybrid outputs for the first time. We call it a stochastic nondiscretionary DEA model (SND-DEA), and it is developed to measure and compare the relative efficiency of forest management units under different environmental management systems. Furthermore, we apply an output-oriented DEA technology to both deterministic and stochastic scenarios. The required data are collected from 24 forest management plans (as decision-making units) and included four inputs and an equal amount of outputs. The findings of this practical research show that the modified SND-DEA model in different probability levels gives us apparently different results compared with the output from pure deterministic models. However, when we calculate the correlation measures, the probability levels give us a strong positive correlation between stochastic and deterministic models. Therefore, approximately 40% of the forest management plans based on the applied SND-DEA model should substantially increase their average efficiency score. As the major conclusion, our developed SND-DEA model is a suitable improvement over previous developed models to discriminate the efficiency and (or) inefficiency of decision-making units to hedge against risk and uncertainty in this type of forest management problem.

Elementary School Teachers' Awareness of Forest Welfare Services and Promotion of Strategies for School-based Health Promotion Programs Using the Forest

Purpose: This study was conducted to identify the perceptions toward school forest programs related to forest welfare services in elementary schools and suggest strategies to activate new programs. Methods: A mixed method research was performed. Four teachers and one forest therapist participated in a focus group interview; 162 teachers answered a survey. Results: The teachers were aware of the effects of the forest program, but there were some barriers, including the question of whether there was an accessible forest, school forest management problems, the risk of teachers’ work overload, and the lack of program diversification for elementary students. Solutions included the expansion of school forests and forest facilities available to students, development of a variety of programs, provision of appropriate information on available facilities, and cooperation with educational institutions for institutionalization and increased effectiveness of school-based forest utilization programs. In addition, a scientific basis for data accumulation is needed. Conclusion: The Ministry of Forestry is cooperating with the Ministry of Education and local education offices to activate a forest-use health promotion program for elementary school students. Additionally, to utilize the forests in regular education courses, teachers should strive to spread positive awareness of forests.

Factors Hindering Forest Management Among Engaged and Detached Private Forest Owners: Slovenian Stakeholders’ Perceptions

Small-scale properties are the prevailing ownership category in Slovenian private forests. Owners are becoming increasingly diverse with predominant multifunctional management orientation which has led to underutilisation of wood potentials over the past decades. We surveyed forest-related stakeholders (24) to understand their perceptions on factors affecting private forest management. We used their perceptions, as opposed to the actual barriers, to understand what needs to be changed in forest policy. This study is based on the latest (private forest owners) PFOs typology conducted in Slovenia which resulted in types of engaged and detached forest owners. A typology based framework for data collection and analysis was performed using six pre-set categories from operational environment. We followed the Simple Multiple-Attribute Rating Techniques method to evaluate the most important private forest management hindering factors. The results showed that stakeholders perceived only minor differences between owner types according to hindering factors. The psychological factors were perceived as the crucial category separating the two types, suggesting that detached owners are more substantially driven by personal decisions, which follow recent societal changes. The group of economic factors was recognized as the most important category for both types suggesting that forest policy should prioritize profit-oriented management strategies. The results imply that owner-specific forest policy may not be the priority for stakeholders and that the problems of private forest management can be solved with the implementation of innovative and active policy measures, which take into account multifunctional forest management orientation of PFOs, their characteristics and ownership trends.

Location set-covering inspired models for designing harvesting and cable road layouts

One of the classic operations problems in forest management is to select the harvesting system and to plan the layout, which has a significant impact on overall operational and environmental efficiency. This paper addresses the design of a harvesting system in areas characterized by steep slopes requiring cable-based harvesting under central European conditions. We present two computationally efficient methods (designated as set-covering model SCM and bounded set-covering model BSCM) for solving problems of cable road layouts and comparing them with a previously developed model (CaMLOC). Formulating the problem as a type of location set-covering model allowed us to delineate a much smaller problem that was easier to solve. By applying the new model formulations, it is possible to identify mathematical optimal CR layouts for real-world forests areas up to 50 ha within a reasonable period of time and to even estimate the maximum gap in optimality (only with the BSCM approach).

«КЕДРОГРАДСКОЕ ДВИЖЕНИЕ»: ПЕРВЫЕ ПОПЫТКИ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ УСТОЙЧИВОГО ЛЕСОПОЛЬЗОВАНИЯ В КЕДРОВЫХ ЛЕСАХ СИБИРИ (КОНЕЦ 1950-Х - ПЕРВАЯ ПОЛОВИНА 1960-Х ГГ.)

The article is devoted to the “Kedrograd movement” - public and practical activity to organize the exploitation of cedar forests on the principles of rational integrated use in Gorny Altai during the late 1950s - the first half of the 1960s. On the basis of archival sources the author shows the problems of objective and subjective character, with which the participants of the movement had to face. The achievements of “Kedrograd members” in the popularization of the idea of the integrated and inexhaustible use of cedar taiga resources and in the scientific study of the problems of forest management in cedar forests are noted. The study shows that the results of the movement participants’ activity were implemented in the adopted legislative acts aimed at improving the management of cedar forests in Russia.

Linking forest policy issues and decision support tools in Europe

While very many decision-support (DS) tools (i.e. models and decision support systems (DSS)) have been developed to address forest management problems in Europe, the use of such tools in supporting forest policy processes remains limited. Additionally, while there has been very limited sharing of these tools between European countries, there may be an untapped potential for both users and developers in this area.This paper focuses on improving understanding and capacities in the use of forest DS tools for decision making by identifying major forest policy areas, tools available to support them, compatibility of existing tools with the requirements of forest policy areas, potential areas where tools may be shared between countries and factors limiting the use of DS tools in forest policy.Data collection was based on expert interviews. The questionnaire, which comprised a combination of open- and close-ended questions, was forwarded to experts via email. Expert interviews were completed via Skype with the input of one policy specialist and one modeller/decision support specialist from each country.This study categorised key forest policy areas and the DS tools available to support them. Almost one third of these forest policy areas were not addressed by any DS tool. The analysis also revealed that DS tools are mainly developed to assist scientists and policy decision makers to address smaller spatial scales, that they are more orientated to single decision makers with a predominant focus on market wood products. In addition, through an attribute-matching exercise, the DS tools that could potentially be used in other countries to support similar forest policy areas were also identified.Interviews highlighted some of the reasons why DS tools are seldom used in policy making processes; these include a lack of trust in the actual use of the tools as well as a perception of inadequacy for the specifics of real policy process. This research provides a detailed overview of existing DS tools and the forest policy areas that they address. It further provides information on how to address or reduce the gap between DS tools functionalities and requirements from policy makers.

Índice de sitio para bosques naturales de Pinus teocote Schlecht. & Cham. en el oriente del estado de Hidalgo


 
 
 La estimación de la productividad de los sitios forestales es indispensable para el manejo sostenible de los bosques y el índice de sitio constituye la metodología más utilizada en el mundo para este fin. Sin embargo, uno de los problemas más graves en el manejo forestal es la falta de ordenamiento de los rodales en función a su productividad, lo que propicia sobreexplotación de los recursos en algunos casos y la subexplotación en otros. Por ello, el objetivo del presente estudio fue estimar el índice de sitio y comparar la factibilidad de emplear las curvas anamórficas y polimórficas para bosques naturales de Pinus teocote en la región oriente del estado de Hidalgo. Se manejaron 345 pares de valores edad-altura de árboles dominantes y codominantes evaluados en rodales puros de este taxon; se ajustó el modelo de crecimiento de Schumacher que de acuerdo al bajo valor del Cuadrado Medio del Error, el alto valor de Pseudo R2 ajustada y la correcta distribución de residuales mostró un ajuste adecuado a los datos, para determinar la curva guía y la construcción de las familias de curvas anamórficas y polimórficas de índice de sitio. Se establecieron calidades de estación de I, II, III, IV y V, en los valores de 27, 23, 19,15 y 1 m, respectivamente, a una edad base de 50 años.
 
 

Recreational Forest Management for Disabled People in Urban Forests – the Current State and Perspectives. A Case Study of Poznań

Purpose. The aim of this paper is a review of literature on forest environment adaptation in the cities to the needs of elderly and disabled people. The detailed objectives are to present the current state of recreational development in the urban forests of Poznań, with reference of this state to the demographic perspective for the city. Method. A review of literature and city documents was conducted. Findings. Preparation of forest management development for the elderly or disabled might be one of the key problems of forest management in urban forests. Poznań, despite having a 5 km long path for disabled people disabled individuals within one complex of urban forests, its potential is much greater, taking into account 84 km of roads as well as paths, and a total area of over 2,500 ha. Research conclusions and limitations. It is difficult to decide how many people with different types of disabilities visit forests (urban, suburban, State forests) and what the perspectives in the share of forest visitors and their preferences are. Practical implications. The paper emphasizes the need to adjust the forest to the disabled. It may influence some future projects. Originality. The paper joins the review of world literature with the perspectives of demographics of the presented city. Type of paper. An empirical paper.

Influence of the geographical scope on the research foci of sustainable forest management: Insights from a content analysis

Individual approaches to sustainable forest management have to be operationalized according to the regionally specific environmental conditions and stakeholder requirements. Unique regional socio-economic conditions also significantly impact stakeholder requirements of globally acting forest sector companies. Therefore, forest-based sector decision makers have to be aware of regionally-specific and context sensitive sustainability concerns, when assessing and prioritizing sustainability issues. Sustainability research is considered to have a regional focus and a problem-driven perspective. Hence, research foci of scientific discussion on sustainable forest management can provide insight into regional differences and problems of sustainable forest management. We conducted a quantitative content analysis of 643 scientific abstracts in the context of sustainable forest management. We observed 16 different topic categories, out of which the topics of forest health and conservation and forest management practices represent the dominant foci. Furthermore, our results confirm a strong impact of geographic scope on the research foci. For example, the issues of climate change mitigation and adaptation are significantly more investigated in the Global North while social impacts of forest management are more researched in the Global South. Our findings suggest that decision makers should consider more than environmental issues when selecting corporate social responsibility activities or when making environmental policies. Otherwise, they can potentially overlook the impacts of forest management which are of high regional importance and intensively investigated by the scientific community.

Стовбурова нематода Bursaphelenchus mucronatus як чинник всихання хвойних дерев у Карпатах і Поліссі

Досліджено, що стовбурова нематода Bursaphelenchus mucronatus зумовлює всихання верхівок сосни звичайної на Поліссі та ялини європейської в Українських Карпатах. Найбільшу чисельність нематод виявлено у стовбурі дерева нижче ділянки всихання. У деревині всохлих верхівок, окрім стовбурових нематод, іноді у великій кількості розмножуються бактеріофаги, які разом із бактеріями є першими агентами розкладання відмерлої деревини. Збільшення тривалості теплого періоду сприяє інтенсивнішому розвитку стовбурових нематод у деревині хвойних порід. У природних деревостанах смуги ялинових лісів на верхній межі лісу зареєстровано частіше їх трапляння у відмерлій деревині ялини. Наявність на значних площах вторинних монодомінантних деревостанів осередків всихання ялини європейської та сосни звичайної сприяє покращенню функціонуванню біотичної системи стовбурових нематод, а відтак і збільшенню їхньої шкодочинності та всихання дерев.