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

Forests

Simon Riguelle¹  Jacques Hrt²  Benoit Jourez¹  Jean-Claude Ruel³ 

[1] Laboratory of Wood Technology, Public Service of Wallonia, Avenue Maréchal Juin 23, Gembloux 5030, Belgium; E-Mails:;Unit of Forest Resources Management, Department Biosystem Engineering (BIOSE), University of Liège—Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Passage des Déportés 2, Gembloux 5030, BelgiumLaboratory of Wood Technology, Public Service of Wallonia, Avenue Maréchal Juin 23, Gembloux 5030, Belgium;

关键词: wind damage;    crisis management;    model;    decision support system (DSS);   

DOI  :  10.3390/f6103412

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.