East European forests dominated by Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) in the broad-leaved–coniferous zone should be considered as secondary communities formed under the influence of centuries-long activities (logging, fires and planting) and extended outside their natural range. The study raises an issue—how stable is the current state of Norway spruce forests in the center of the Russian plain and what is the effect of silviculture on the forest cover of the large urban agglomeration—the Moscow Region? Current study is based on multidisciplinary research and consequently concerns the age dynamics of spruce plantation forests, the species and typological diversity of mature spruce forests and spatial pattern of spruce forests along the south edge of their range. The composition and structure of Norway spruce plantations have been studied for various age classes and compared with mature natural spruce forests and pine plantations on the basis of field data. Remote sensing data and modeling approach were applied to estimate the spatial structure of spruce forests. It is found that mature plantations (over 80 years) become similar to natural forests in terms of structure and composition. The relationship between the distribution of spruce formations and the climatic and geomorphological conditions are confirmed. The proportion of spruce and spruce–aspen/birch communities follows the pattern of zones—the transition from the coniferous and broad-leaved forest zone to the broad-leaved forest zone. Despite the significant anthropogenic impact and the high proportion of plantations in the composition of Norway spruce forests (about 60–80%), their floristic and typological diversities correspond to such properties of zonal broad-leaved–coniferous communities. Over-matured plantations can provide valuable habitats for the re-establishment of native typological diversity. This makes it possible to use silviculture stands as an accelerated alternative to the natural recovery of disturbed habitats.

This study tests modern approaches to spatial modeling of forest communities at the regional level based on a supervised classification. The study is conducted by the example of mapping the composition of forest communities in a large urbanized region (the Moscow Region, area 4.69 million hectares). A database of 1684 field descriptions is used as sample plots. As environmental variables, Landsat spectral reflectances, vegetation indices (5 images), digital elevation model and morphometric parameters of the relief, 54 layers in total, are used. Additionally, the Palsar-2 radar dataset is included. The main mapped units are formations and groups of associations identified on the basis of the ecological-phytocoenotic classification. Formations and groups of associations are similar in semantics and principles of allocation to units of forest typology. It is shown that the maximum entropy method has a wide range of applications, in particular, for mapping the typological diversity of forest cover. The method is used in combination with geographically structured spatial jack-knifing, spatial rarefication of occurrence data and independent testing of model feature classes and regularization parameters. Spatial rarefication is a critical technique when points are not evenly distributed in space. The resulting model of the spatial structure of forest cover is based on the integration of the best models of each thematic class of different types of forest cover into a single cartographic layer. It is shown that under conditions of uneven and sparse distribution of points, it is possible to provide an average point matching level of 0.45 for formations and 0.29 for association groups. Herewith, the spatial structure and the ratio of the formation’s composition correspond to the official data of the forest inventory. An attempt is made to identify and evaluate the distribution of more detailed syntaxonomic units: association groups. The necessary requirements for improving the quality of the forest cover model of the study area for 2 hierarchical typological units of forest cover are formulated. These include the additional sampling in order to equalize their spatial density, as well as to achieve equality of samples based on stratification according to the resulting map.

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The paper presents an inventory of current forest formations and a map of forest vegetation in the Moscow region. To assess current forest formations, an approach integrating both ground- and remote sensing data was applied. The transformation of forests in the Moscow region was evaluated by the criteria of changing the quality, quantity and spatial configuration of forests, in accordance with the model SLOSS (Single Large or Several Small). The conceptual model "Pressure-State-Response" (hereinafter PRS) was used to develop appropriate tools for sustainable environmental management in the region. The use of this model made it possible not only to assess the state of forests but also to determine the main impacts affecting them, as well as the effectiveness of measures aimed at optimizing environmental management regimes in order to maintain forest biodiversity. Complex assessment of sets of indicators for each group of PRS criteria is performed for the integrated multicriteria assessment of sustainable forest management within the boundaries of urban districts. The average normalized score was calculated for each group of criteria. Correlation between the scores of the groups of criteria evaluated and classification of administrative units according to the ratio of groups of the K-means method criteria performed. As a result of component-by-component evaluation, the values of indicators are presented in form of tables and map сharts. Benchmarking of Specially Protected Natural Area (SPNA) system and reforestation activities is performed regarding to the forest biodiversity conservation in the urban districts. It is shown that single integrated assessment of the ecological value of the territory (the "State" criterion), an integrated assessment of impact factors (the "Load") and appropriate actions to maintain forest biodiversity (the "Response" criterion) can be considered as an expression of generalized information directly used in decision-making and assessment of current trends for a particular region.

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