WIND-STORM: A Decision Support System for the Strategic Management of Windthrow Crises by the Forest Community

Abstract

Storms are one of the most damaging agents for European forests and can cause huge and long-term economic impacts on the forest sector. Recent events and research haves contributed to a better understanding and management of destructive storms, but public authorities still lack appropriate decision-support tools for evaluating their strategic decisions in the aftermath of a storm. This paper presents a decision support system (DSS) that compares changes in the dynamics of the regional forest-based sector after storm events under various crisis management options. First, the development and implementation of a regional forest model is addressed; then, the potential application of the model-based DSS WIND-STORM is illustrated. The results of simulated scenarios reveal that this DSS type is useful for designing a cost-effective regional strategy for storm-damage management in the context of scarce public resources and that public strategies must encompass the whole forest-based sector to be efficient. Additional benefits of such a DSS is to bring together decision-makers and forest stakeholders for a common objective and therefore to enhance participatory approaches to crisis management.

Integrated and systemic management of storm damage by the forest-based sector and public authorities

“…2. In this example, the system encompasses successive steps of regional forest-wood chains and is thus composed of several sub-systems (Riguelle et al 2015). Its behavior is influenced by regional, national, and Fig.…”

“…An illustration of how system analysis can drive the strategic management of storm damage is presented below. In this example, taking place in Wallonia (Belgium), a decision support system based on system dynamics principle, the WIND-STORM software (Riguelle et al 2015), is used to predict how transport capacity and timber storage may influence the amount of timber lying in forests and industrial log yards during a 5-year period after a destructive storm. Four scenarios have been simulated, on the basis of an overall damage of eight million cubic meters: a baseline scenario, for which no specific measure is taken after the storm (BASE); a second scenario where only the harvesting capacity is boosted by 20 % (SC1); a third in which both harvesting and transport capacities are increased by 20 % (SC2); and a fourth where two million cubic meters of damaged timber are stored for 24 months (SC3).…”

“…4b, too rapid destocking can cause an excessive supply if no measures to limit the upstream offer are taken. Interested readers should refer to Riguelle et al (2015) for a thorough description of this type of DSS and its contribution to systemic analysis.…”

“…Whether they have any direct influence on the macro-economic context, they can act locally by alleviating the constraints with which the forest-based sector struggles. In parallel, they should identify institutional bottlenecks and try to resolve them in advance by leading on prospective systemic analyses (Riguelle et al 2015). The continuous improvement of the system also requires consistent and systematic ex-post evaluations of public policies (Bisang and Zimmermann 2006).…”

A Course of Innovations in Wood Processing Industry within the Forestry-Wood Chain in Slovakia: A Q Methodology Study to Identify Future Orientation in the Sector

“…Single market models were improved during the years and even if it appears they have nothing to offer more, Hurmekoski et al [19] argue that the movement in technology processing and continuous improving of the processes or production brings new challenges also for the issue forecasting and, moreover, as mentioned also by d'Annunzio [20], the forecasts of future development is becoming more and more demanded article. Furthermore, in the area of forest management practices a multidisciplinary research oriented on the assessment of forest management approaches in protected areas was carried out by Machar et al [21], complex challenges of maintaining for innovative research, management and policy approaches by Hansen et al [22] and Riguelle et al [23] described a support system for the strategic management of crises by the forest community.…”