Sustainability Assessment of Alternative Thinning Operations in Mediterranean Softwood Plantations

Abstract

Abstract:Mediterranean pines account for 14,000 ha in Tuscany alone, where they form large and homogeneous stands and represent an important resource for the forest economy. Among the harvesting systems applied to thinning operations, the most popular are whole-tree and cut-to-length harvestings. Both systems can be deployed with different levels of mechanization. The decision about which system might be the best option in a specific case possibly leads to conflicts due to different management goals, for instance when the shift from cut-to-length to whole-tree harvesting systems results in a decrease of costs and an increase of environmental burdens. Thus, an accurate determination of economic, environmental and social indicators is crucial to make balanced decisions. With that in mind, we carried out a sustainability impact assessment of typical forest-wood chain alternatives applied to young Mediterranean pine plantations and made a comparative evaluation by means of multi-criteria analyses. Trials were carried out in umbrella pine (Pinus pinea L.) plantations in Tuscany. The analyzed cases considered four thinning operations and included the processes of harvesting, extraction and chipping. In the analysis, 12 indicators were considered (e.g., global warming potential, fatal accidents). Results of the investigation allow quantifying possible sustainability impacts and, thus, supporting management decisions.

Sustainability Assessment of Alternative Strip Clear Cutting Operations for Wood Chip Production in Renaturalization Management of Pine Stands

“…The final weights are the points of each criterion divided by the sum of all points. The selection of utility functions, preference functions and thresholds for this study was based on previous studies [44,80], as well as the authors' judgment. In MAUT method we used linear utility-function for all criteria while for PROMETHEE method, a V-shape preference function has been applied.…”

“…In MAUT method we used linear utility-function for all criteria while for PROMETHEE method, a V-shape preference function has been applied. The preference threshold (for V-shape preference function) was set to be 10% of the highest value for each SI [44].…”

“…In other words, MCDA handles the process of making decisions in the presence of multiple, usually conflicting, criteria and provides a formal model to compare a finite number of alternatives on a one-dimensional preference scale [42]. MCDA has been widely used as decision-support tool in forest management [40,43] and FO [44,45].…”

Sustainability Impact Assessment of Forest Operations: a Review

“…Most of the articles reporting sustainable analysis considered production costs (fixed and variable), total amount of wood harvested, time consumption, delays, gross domestic product, gross and local value added, trade, yearly net revenues of forest subjects, and fuel consumption [e.g., 8,16,40,74,90,91]. Cost and productivity can vary largely between countries and different scenarios related to different logging systems and assortments [21,22,41].…”

The Impact of Felling Method, Bunch Size, Slope Degree and Skidding Area on Productivity and Costs of Skidding in a Eucalyptus Plantation

“…Consequently, improvements related to mechanized wood harvesting provided knowledge of information regarding the productivity and costs of a particular machine and/ or system, i.e., the reliability of these two pieces of information is fundamental for a better understanding of the productive system. Thus, it can be observed that the mechanization of the wood harvesting activity goes through major inno vations and technological advances (Simões et al 2014, Di Fulvio et al 2017, Kaakkurivaara and Kaakkurivaara 2018, but for this to occur, it is important to under-stand the processes, stages and work involved in this segment (Lindroos et al 2017, Schweier et al 2018, Blagojevic et al 2019, Kizha et al 2020, as well as factors involved in assessing forest planning (Mousavi et al 2011, Bodaghi et al 2018, Holzleitner et al 2018, Santos et al 2019. Although changes are often observed, culminating in the evolution of forest operations, differences in machine production costs may occur due to machine models or wood harvesting methods applied.…”