Forest Ecosystem Processes  > Decision Support Tools

Better management tools and methods are needed to represent the complex interactions among components of ecological and social systems, and to evaluate tradeoffs between management alternatives. Also, multi-resource analyses require information developed across a range of temporal and spatial scales. Methods taken from mathematical and statistical theory, adaptive management, and operations research provide the basis for creating decision support systems for forest ecosystem analysis and planning. To provide management with knowledge that is complex and has interacting variables, a decision support system should be packaged as a suite of models that predict ecosystem response to a wide range of conditions, both natural and human caused, at a variety of temporal and spatial scales.

Mission: To develop useful analytical methods and tools by synthesizing new knowledge about ecological and growth processes, as influenced by environment and management, into decision support tools that link quantitative models to forest management at appropriate temporal and spatial scales, and into recommendations that sustain healthy forest ecosystems.

Major Projects:

• Suppose graphical user interface for FVS decision support system.
• Most Similar Neighbor (MSN) Sample Imputation.
• Fire and fuels Extension to FVS linking fuel dynamics, fire effects, and fire behavior to forest vegetation development and to insect dynamics.
• LIDAR study
• Linkage of information at different spacial scales.