The Use Of On Line Simulation For Strategic Planning In The Forest Industries

The goal of Kangas, Kangas and Kurttila's Decision Support for Forest Management is to provide students and researchers with a toolbox of methods for approaching the different planning situations that may arise in practice. It draws together a wide range of methods used in planning forest management regimes and presents a systematic overview of current methodological approaches. While earlier books concerning forest planning have tended to focus on linear programming, economic aspects, or specific multi-criteria decision aid tools, this book provides a much broader range of tools to meet a variety of planning situations. The methods themselves cover a range of decision situations – from cases involving single decision makers, through group decision making, to participatory planning. They include traditional decision support tools, from optimization to utility functions, as well as methods that are just gaining ground in forest planning – such as problem structuring methods and social choice theory. Including examples which illustrate the application of each technique to specific management planning problems, the book offers an invaluable resource for both researchers and advanced students specializing in management and planning issues relating to forestry.

GISForman+ (Geographic Information System linked FORest MANagement plus) is a hybrid forest simulator, drawing from both spatial and aspatial forest modelling experience. Its spatial nature originates from GISFORMAN and uses the ArcInfo GIS, while much of its management control functionality is modelled from FORMAN+1, both simulators based on the FORMAN software. GISForman+ allows forest planners to forecast forest response to spatial management strategies. It applies rule-based harvest and silviculture intervention strategies to a forest model of stand conditions and locations, growth patterns, and intervention (treatment) alternatives. Using a spatial forest model, GISForman+ can model harvest size opening limits and the resulting harvesting restrictions. This user manual describes the concepts behind GISForman+, explores the software's forest model as well as its management strategy and simulator functionality, describes the items held in the various files required by GISForman+ in a functional way (more technical descriptions of file formats are in the appendix), reviews the simulation reporting outputs, and outlines the simulation creation tutorial.

Includes entries for maps and atlases.

Changes in production, demand, supply, and trade patterns; the impact of green building and bioenergy on industry practices and policy infrastructure; and new economies with production advantages and large consumption bases all present challenges and opportunities in the forest sector. With contributions from leading experts in academia and professional organizations, The Global Forest Sector: Changes, Practices, and Prospects fills a gap in the literature that is preventing students, scholars, and policy makers from developing a timely, structured, big-picture view of forest sector business. In addition, the book reviews current thinking on a wide variety of business management issues in the forest sector. The book covers managing change in the global forest sector and the impact of globalization on forest users. It discusses markets and market forces, new products and product categories, and the influence of China and Russia. The book then examines the environmental paradigm, including environmental activism, sustainability, and the impact of green building and bioenergy. The book concludes with coverage of the role of information technology, corporate social responsibility, innovation, and next steps. Overall, this book helps readers both develop a bird’s eye view of the changes surrounding the forest sector as well as have a magnified view of numerous managerial issues associated with these changes. The content paints a picture of the current and changing forest sector including the state of forests, the nature of markets, the newly emerged patterns of stakeholder impact, and evolution of key business practices. It provides the foundation needed to develop the conservation-based economy required for future success in the global forest sector.