From 2009 to 2013, a group of more than 100 researchers from 26 countries, under a COST-Action project named FORSYS, worked on a review of the use of forest management decision support systems (FMDSS). Guided by a template, local researchers conducted assessments of FMDSS use in their countries; their results were documented in Country Reports. In this study, we have used the Country Reports to construct a summary of FMDSS use. For the purposes of our analysis, we conducted a two-round categorisation of the main themes to describe the most relevant aspects of FMDSS use. The material produced was used to generate quantitative summaries of (i) the types of problem where FMDSS are used, (ii) models and methods used to solve these problems, (iii) knowledge management techniques, and (iv) participatory planning techniques. Beyond this, a qualitative analysis identified and summarised the local researchers' primary concerns, recorded in the conclusions to the Country Reports; we designated these "lessons learned". Results from the quantitative analysis suggested that most of the participant countries were making use of latest generation FMDSS. A few did not have practical problems that justified the use of such technology or they were still at the beginning of the process of building models to solve their own forest problems.
Aim of study. The aim of the study was to overview forest management decision support systems (FMDSS) listed in the FORSYS wiki in terms of software design and architecture.Area of study. A total of 62 FMDSS from 23 countries were included into the study.Material and methods. First, all FMDSS listed in the FORSYS wiki were described in terms of functionalities, typologies and elements of architecture. Thereafter, the findings were compared with the desired architectural features of FMDSS to identify success or potential gaps. Finally, some measures were suggested to improve knowledge transfer and smooth integration of system components.Main results. Most of the systems listed in the FORSYS wiki originate from research projects and are either knowledge- or model-driven. There are only few compound systems or tools that can be used as sub-components in integrated systems.Research highlights. There is a lack of generic platforms or DSS generators that would facilitate construction of integrated systems. Further efforts are needed to study the potential of cloud services. Keywords: forest management; decision support systems; software architecture; typologies.
There is an important body of literature using multi-criteria distance function methods for the aggregation of a battery of sustainability indicators in order to obtain a composite index. This index is considered to be a proxy of the sustainability goodness of a natural system. Although this approach has been profusely used in the literature, it is not exempt from difficulties and potential pitfalls. Thus, in this paper, a significant number of critical issues have been identified showing different procedures capable of avoiding, or at least of mitigating, the inherent potential pitfalls associated with each one. The recommendations made in the paper could increase the theoretical soundness of the multi-criteria distance function methods when this type of approach is applied in the sustainability field, thus increasing the accuracy and realism of the sustainability measurements obtained.
Forests have been the primary source of fibers, food, water, biodiversity, energy, recreation, scenic beauty, and environmental services. Forest management science encompasses the challenge of working with forests in a way that produces required benefits now without compromising future benefits and choices. The concept of optimized forest management has become broader in recent decades. Pressure toward social, economic, and environmental sustainability pushes up research to cover these demands by improving models, introducing new methods, and adding holistic planning approaches in forest management decision support systems (FMDSS). The conflicts that arise between the desire to consume natural resources and the desire to preserve them make the multicriteria decision theory necessary. Brazil, one of the ten largest timber producers in the world, has the second largest forest cover on the planet. It also uses optimization models that represent the growth of forests integrated with decision support systems that assist managers in their decisions. However, forest planning models and applied decision support systems are not uniformly developed and available for all types of problems encountered in the country. Brazilian forest plantation managers have to face many conflicts when continuously seeking gains regarding efficiency (higher productivity at lower costs) and efficacy (higher profits with minimum social and environmental impacts).Leading producing countries on timber, pulp, and fiberboard have their managers constantly interact to fine-tune industry processing demands vis-a-vis the demands of highly productive fast-growing forest plantations. The decision process in such cases seeks a compromise that accommodates frequently conflicting objectives. Therefore, this research work aims to develop a forest management decision support system (FMDSS) based on multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques to support group decision-making (GDM) in the diversified context of forest plantations in Brazil. Explicitly, the objective is developing a set of models to optimize forest management embedded in a DDS to meet the needs of the decision-makers of the different types of forest plantation organizations that operate in Brazil. This set of models encompasses multicriteria mathematical programming models, processes, and data models structured in such a way to be versatile enough to support interactive group decision-making.
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