Multiple criteria decision analysis with consideration to place-specific values in participatory forest planning

The combination of multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and participatory planning is an approach that has been applied in complex planning situations where multiple criteria of very different natures are considered, and several stakeholders or social groups are involved. The spatial character of forest planning problems adds further to the complexity, because a large number of forest stands are to be assigned different treatments at different points in time. In addition, experience from participatory forest planning indicates that stakeholders may think about the forest in terms of place-specific values rather than in forest-wide terms. The objective of this study was to present an approach for including place-specific values in MCDA-based participatory forest planning and illustrate the approach by a case study where the objective was to choose a multipurpose forest plan for an area of urban forest in northern Sweden. Stakeholder values were identified in interviews, and maps were used to capture place-specific spatial values. The nonspatial and nonplace-specific spatial values were formulated as criteria and used to build an objective hierarchy describing the decision situation. The place-specific spatial values were included in the creation of a map showing zones of different silvicultural management classes, which was used as the basis for creation of forest plan alternatives in the subsequent process. The approach seemed to work well for capturing place-specific values, and the study indicates that formalized methods for including and evaluating place-specific values in participatory forest planning processes should be developed and tested further

An integrated MCDA software application for forest planning : a case study in southwestern Sweden

Forest planning in Sweden today translates not only into planning of timber production, but also for the provision of other functions and services. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods provide a way to take also non-monetary values into account in planning. The purpose of this study was to gain experience on how to use a forest decision support system combined with an MCDA tool in practical forestry. We used a new forest planning tool, PlanWise, which includes an integrated MCDA module, PlanEval. Using the software, the decision maker can compare different forest plans and evaluate them against his/her objectives in a structured and analytical manner. The analysis thus provides a ranking of the alternatives based on the individual preferences of the decision maker. PlanEval and the MCDA planning process are described in a case study, where the manager of a forest estate in southwestern Sweden used the program to compare different forest plans made for the estate. In the paper, we analyze possibilities and challenges of this approach and identify problems such as the adherence to formal requirements of MCDA techniques and the difficulty of comparing maps. Possibilities to expedite an MCDA planning process further are also discussed. The findings confirm that integration of an MCDA tool with a forest decision support system is valuable, but requires expert assistance to be successful

Participatory forest planning and multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA)

With the industrial revolution, the human utilization of the forest took a new turn as wood became a commercial product (Östlund & Zackrisson 2000). Since then, economical considerations have pervaded the public perspective on forest and forestry. However, the awareness of the need for sustainability in the use of the forest resource has also grown, and during the last decades other values have entered the discussion and the practice of forestry. Today, sustainable forest management (SFM) where economical, ecological and social values are all satisfied, is a core element in the development of acceptable forest management practices. Public participation is strongly related to SFM. In some industrialized countries, e.g. Canada, demands for participation in natural resource management have subsequently been incorporated into the legislation (Chambers and Beckley 2003), but in most countries there is no legal demand for participation. In Sweden for example, the only demand for participation in the Forestry Act is consultation before clear cutting in certain areas of reindeer herding. Forest certification, which is now covering extensive areas in several countries, plays an interesting role in the promotion of SFM. However, its main purpose is not public participation and the integration of social values into forestry (Angelstam et al. 2004). Internationally, there is the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. This convention has been ratified by Sweden amongst other countries, but it is difficult to make a strict interpretation of it. New approaches and methods are obviously needed in forest management planning to incorporate forest values other than timber production and to help solve conflicts of interest. There have been some attempts made by different types of projects. The Canadian Model Forest concept promotes participation in the work for SFM, and has been tried out in Sweden in the Vilhelmina Model Forest project (Svensson et al. 2004). Some of the LIFE projects sponsored by the European Union are also applications of participation with SFM as the objective; the project “Local Participation in Sustainable Forest Management based on Landscape Analysis” is a Swedish example of a LIFE project sponsored by the European Union (http://www.svo.se/minskog/templates/svo_se_vanlig.asp?id=8001, 2007-01-12). A potentially powerful tool in the work for sustainable forest management (SFM) and participation is multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA), an approach which can make it possible to handle complex decision situations involving conflicting interests and several stakeholders. The purpose of this paper is to clarify concepts related to participation and present methods that are applicable in participatory planning. More specifically the following questions will be dealt with: • What is meant by participation? What methods and techniques are available to participatory planning processes? • What is MCDA and what phases do this approach require? In order to illuminate the state of art of participatory planning in forestry, an analysis of a number of case studies is presented

A comparison of the ForestMan AI software with the Heureka system regarding forest growth simulations and carbon calculations

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the reliability of the forest growth simulations and carbon calculations of the ForestMan AI forest planning system. The ForestMan AI software is developed by and the property of Skogr Kaupa Group AB. ForestMan AI is based on the ProdMod model from SLU and carbon calculations according to methodologies recommended by the IPCC in Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories reporting.The Heureka system calculations are used as benchmark for the evaluation. Heureka is a planning system that has been developed over more than 20 years and has found extensive use in both research and among forest companies. The Heureka system calculations is used as the basis for evaluation since it can be considered state-of-the-art with respect to forest research and because it is also used for assessments for the Swedish reporting of greenhouse gas emissions.The evaluation is based on the data from a forest estate in the Halland county. The estate encompasses 2.037 ha and has spruce as dominating species. It is, by and large, representative of forest in the region.The evaluation shows ForestMan AI to perform growth projections and the associated carbon stock assessment to agree to a great extent. No major deviations between the outputs of the systems are identified.The result of the study can be used as a basis for further development of standards for evaluating forest planning systems. Carbon as a commodity represents an emerging branch of forestry. Furthermore, it is the quantity to report by financial institutions and forest owners in Climate Benefit Analyses (CBA) mandated by the EU Taxonomy. Thus, it is crucial that different actors, SMEs (Small, Medium Enterprises) and others, are given access to research in various forms to meet the needs of this emerging branch of forestry

Utvärdering av stadsdelen Aranäs i Kungsbacka

Hur blev det sen? Alltför sällan finns det tid eller intresse för arkitekter och planerare att återvända till gjorda projekt för att undersöka hur det blev. Alla diskussioner om krav och regler, ambitionen att skapa bra bostäder och bostadsområden, mötet med de ekonomiska ramarna – hur togs det emot av de boende? Den här rapporten är ett resultat av att Utvecklingsgruppen for samhällsplanering, i Kungsbacka kommun, tog initiativ till utvecklingen av en metod för utvärderingar. Kungsbacka kommun och i synnerhet Kungsbacka stad växer snabbt och gruppen ansåg att det var viktigt att kunna utvärdera genomförda bostadsbyggnadsprojekt och ta med vunna erfarenheter till kommande projekt. Hur bygger vi en fungerande attraktiv stad och hur bygger vi den för alla och med platser där människor vill vara? Den här är en rapport om en utvärdering av Aranäs, en ny stadsdel intill Kungsbacka gamla stadskärna. Utvärderingen genomfördes 2011-2012 och omfattas av djupintervjuer och en enkät som delats ut till samtliga boende. Materialet har sedan sammanställts digitalt och presenteras i diagram, kommentarer och en sammanfattande värderos. I samband med utvärderingen har också en metod för utvärderingar tagits fram. Metoden är tänkt att användas i kommande utvärderingar av nya bostadsomraden i Kungsbacka stad. Utvärderingen är gjord av Chalmersforskarna Anna Braide Eriksson och Ola Nylander som är verksamma som doktorand respektive professor på Institutionen för Arkitektur. De har tidigare gjort bostadsundersökningar för Hyresgästföreningen och för allmännyttan i Göteborg. Arbetets resultat vänder sig till politiker och tjänsteman som jobbar med samhällsplanering, men också till fastighetsägare, byggare och boende i kommunen

Industrial and Environmental Impacts of an Expanding Bio-Energy Sector

Available on: http://www.iiis.org/CDs2011/CD2011SCI/EEEP_2011/PapersPdf/JA919AE.pdfInternational audienceIn the context of mitigating climate change and increasing energy security, the use of bio-energy production is expected to play a major role. However, an increased use of woody biomass sources for bio-energy production has in Sweden induced pressure on the woody biomass sources available and influenced forestry management. In this paper we analyze the competition of biomass sources and changes in management of woody resources induced by the joint expansion of the bioenergy sector and forest industries. Results show that increased demand of biomass sources may induce a short-term increase of forest harvesting. However, in the long-term, adequate biomass sources was found to be available to fulfill the joint demand of biomass sources for the production of bioenergy and woody produc

Using design-of-experiments techniques for an efficient finite element study of the influence of changed parameters in design

All designs are marred by uncertainties and tolerances in dimen- sions, load levels etc. Traditionally, one has often over-dimensioned to take these uncertainties into account. The demand for optimized designs with high quality and reliability increases, which means that more sophisticated methods have been developed, see e.g. Lochner and Matar (1990). By describing the fluctuations in design parame- ters in terms of distributions with expectation and variance, the design can be examined with statistical methods, which results in a more op-timized design. This treatment of the design often demands several experiments, and to plan these experiments Design Of Experiments (DOE) techniques, see e.g. Montgomery (1991), are often used. By using DOE methods the design variables are systematically altered, which minimizes the number of experiments needed. The output of the experiments is the results of a specified response function, giving an indication of the influence of design variable fluctuations. A FEM system is a suitable tool when performing repeated, similar analyses. Examples exist where the DOE process has been performed external- ly and then transferred to the FEM system in the form of parameter sets defining the analysis cases that are to be solved, see e.g. Summers et al. (1996) and Billings (1996). This paper describes a statistical DOE module based on Taguchi’s method that works within ANSYS. The module plans the FEM anal-ysis and calculates the standard statistical moments of the FEM result. This module serves as a powerful tool for the engineering designer or analysts when examining the influence of variance and mean value of different design variables. It also serves as an exploration of where to concentrate an optimization process

Design for Perception - A Systematic Approach for the Design of Driving Automation Systems based on the Users\u27 Perception

While there is significant potential for driving automation to increase traffic safety and enhance comfort, it is important that these systems are designed in such a way that drivers are supported in building a correct understanding of the system\u27s capabilities and limitations. Hence, it is necessary to understand both the process by which drivers understand a driving automation system and the factors that influence their perception. During three workshops, six practitioners participated in a participatory action research study around a design use case, aiming to enhance mode awareness in a vehicle offering several levels of automation. This facilitated the development of a card deck, which supports practitioners to 1. explore possible solutions driven through a systematic approach, 2. identify areas of improvement through applying the lens of the user, 3. ideate and evaluate design decisions through a guided process

The time-saving bias: Judgements, cognition and perception

Biases in people’s judgments of time saved by increasing the speed of an activity have been studied mainly with hypothetical scenarios (Svenson, 2008). The present study asked whether the classic time-saving bias persists as a perceptual bias when we control the speed of an activity and assess the perceived time elapsed at different speeds. Specifically, we investigated the time-saving bias in a driving simulator. Each participant was asked to first drive a distance at a given speed and then drive the same distance again at the speed she or he judged necessary to gain exactly three minutes in travel time compared to the first trip. We found that that the time-saving bias applies to active driving and that it affects the choice of driving speed. The drivers’ time-saving judgements show that the perception of the time elapsed while driving does not eliminate the time-saving bias