Integrating wildfire resistance and environmental concerns into a sustainable forest ecosystem management approach

Abstract

This research aims at presenting landscape management planning methods to help stakeholders select forest ecosystem management plans that may address concerns with wildfire risk and with the environmental impacts of clearcuts. Specifically, we develop mixed integer programming models for spatial optimization that incorporate a wildfire resistance index as well as constraints on the size of clearcut openings. The former is used to enforce a minimum level of resistance to wildfire while the latter limits the size of openings, in each period of the planning horizon. Timber volume even flow is another concern that is also taken into account. This research is applied to the Zonas de Intervenção Florestal (ZIF) de Paiva and de Entre-Douro e Sousa (ZIF_VS) which are located in northwestern Portugal.

An Updated Review of Spatial Forest Planning: Approaches, Techniques, Challenges, and Future Directions

“…In their recent work, Ferreira et al [9] focused on spatial optimization in forest management by integrating a wildfire resistance index into MIP formulations. Their approach addressed the flammability of individual stands and landscape features impacting fire spread between neighboring stands, utilizing clear-cut openings based on ARM with a path formulation to represent full adjacency.…”

“…Moreover, various biological, chemical, and physical processes that occur within ecosystems, influence the flow of energy, matter, and nutrients (i.e., nitrogen fixation, succession, disturbances and resilience) and thus the provision of ecosystem services [4,5]. Nevertheless, the escalating global demand for food, fuel, and fiber has resulted in intensified fiber production and more homogenous forest landscape mosaics that impact the vulnerability to pests and diseases [6] and to wildfires [7][8][9] as well as the biodiversity conservation [10][11][12]. This trend impacts the ecological integrity of forest landscaped and poses detrimental effects to the sustainability of global forest resources management.…”