Metla Project 3284

Forest simulator

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Duration: 2000-2006   Keywords: forestry modelling and analysis, j simulation language
Research Programme: Forest Management Planning

Objectives

The objective of the project is to build up a new forest simulator for superseding the MELASIM stand simulator in the MELA context. The primary task of the simulator is the automatic generation of alternative management schedulules for stands over time. The management schedules serve as input for integrated forest and stand level optimization, i.e. the endogenous selection of management activities, on the basis of forest level goals for forestry. The new simulator should also provide an open platform for collaborative scientists to comply with the foreseeable simulator requirements of forestry analysis and forest management planning, for example, in usability and various uses, in details and quality of the contents (forest production and development as largely as possible) as well as in the future maintenability of the simulator and respective knowledge base. The project (closely related to the JLP development)proceeds iteratively from the foundations to the buildup of the simulator.

Results

The ultimate goal, a new forest simulator software for the generation of optional forest management schedules over time for the integrated stand management and forest-level optimisation in the MELA system, was not achieved during the lifetime of this project. The apparent problems of current MELA could not be meaningfully solved as a plain "re-programming" task with minor modifications originally seen. Instead, the need of multidiscliminary method development with regard to the purpose and the build-up of the whole MELA was revealed in our trials before programming phase, reaching from a relevant optimisation problem and the generation of respective management options to the future maintenance of the system with limited human resources, and finally to the selection of suitable information technology for constructing the entire software. Such a development work for a completely new generation of MELA goes further on in Metla (project 3002) on the basis of the experiences and preliminary results obtained in this project.

Project leader: Siitonen, Markku
The Finnish Forest Research Institute, Vantaa Unit, PL 18, FI-01301 VANTAA, FINLAND
Phone: +358 10 211 2169 Telefax: +358 10 211 2202
E-mail: markku.siitonen@metla.fi

Other researchers: Lempinen, Reetta, JO (2005-06), Mattila, Ulla (2002)


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Updated 30.12.2009
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