Forest management for optimizing soil protection: a landscape-level approach

Abstract

Background Soil erosion is still identified as the main cause of land degradation worldwide, threatening soil functions and driving several research and policy efforts to reverse it. Trees are commonly associated to some of the most successful land-use systems to achieve soil protection goals, but the extent to which forest ecosystems reduce erosion risks can largely depend on management decisions and associated silvicultural practices. Optimization tools can assist foresters in solving the complex planning problem they face, concerning the demand for different, and often conflicting, ecosystem services. A resource capability model (RCM), based on a linear programming approach, was built and solved for a forest landscape management problem in Northwest Portugal, over a 90-years planning horizon, divided in 10-years periods. Results Timber provision and soil erosion were found to be in trade-off. The management alternatives included in the model were proven to be sufficiently flexible to obtain the desired level of timber yield, both in volume and even distribution along the planning horizon, while ensuring lower levels of soil loss estimates (below 35 Mg∙ha− 1∙year− 1). However, under climate change conditions, compatible with an increasing greenhouse gases emission scenario, potential landscape soil erosion may be enhanced up to 46 Mg∙ha− 1∙year− 1 in critical periods. Conclusions Soil conservation concerns in landscape-level forest management planning can be addressed by LP-based optimization methods. Besides providing an optimal management solution at landscape level, this approach enables a comprehensive analysis of the RCM, possible trade-offs and potential changes towards uncertainties.

An Updated Review of Spatial Forest Planning: Approaches, Techniques, Challenges, and Future Directions

“…They strategically located old forest stands along the stream network to mitigate sedimentation while optimizing timber harvest, demonstrating trade-offs between timber harvest and soil conservation. In contrast, Rodrigues et al [95] integrated timber production and soil erosion but did not address spatial characteristics for soil erosion prevention or timber yield optimization. None of the studies developed a decision support system to control the spatial arrangement of forest stands for water provision.…”

Complex networks, an innovative methodology for functional zoning in forest management

“…To increase the adaptiveness of forest management plans to future environmental changes and promote the ecosystem services prevalence, we need to develop methodologies that incorporate landscape structural metrics at the stand scale such as proximity, land cover classes, diversity, and size (Cosović et al 2020, Rodrigues et al 2021. In response to this need, several studies have developed different methodological frameworks to explore the relationships among the landscape functions and define a proper multifunctional forest zoning (Müller et al 2020, Baskent et al 2021, Rodrigues et al 2021. However, none has used complex network theory to date.…”

Spatial Layout Analysis of Urban and Rural Buildings under Multicriteria Constraints

“…Compact type refers to the fact that land expansion takes place in the gap zone inside the city; edge or multinode type refers to land expansion and development on the basis of several land plots on the edge of the city. ese plots usually have commercial centers, entertainment centers, etc., and can provide more employment opportunities at the same time; corridor type refers to the land expansion along the main traffic arteries [25].…”