Accastello, Cristian

Blanc, Simone

Brun, Filippo

Bruzzese, Stefano

English

Institutional Research Information System University of Turin

ASFORESEE A multidisciplinary model to  assess forest protection service against rockfall in the Alpine Space ESP Europe 2018 Regional Conference «Ecosystem Services in a Changing World: Moving from Theory to Practice» San Sebastiàn, Spain; 15-19/10/2018 PROJECT SELECTED FOR CO-FINANCING BY THE EU – Total support of € 1,856,844 – Project n. : 462 Stakeholders’ protection  demand   Forest effectiveness Forest management cost THE PROJECT: Alpine forests have always been managed to maintain their protective functions against several gravitational hazard. Nonetheless, a lack of harmonised tools and methods to evaluate and predict their effectiveness prevented their adoption as nature-based protective solution. The INTERREG Alpine Space Project “RockTheAlps” capitalizes the knowledge gained in previous EU project filling the current gaps in mapping, evaluating and modelling the protection service of forests against rockfall. AIMS: Our contribution to the project consists on the development of ASFORESEE: the first harmonized model to evaluate the protection service provided by forests against rockfall risk at stand level. The framework of the model is presented below. Defensive structure  cost   Imput data   Decision   Approach   Evaluation option The Stakeholders’ protection demand is the minimum degree of protection stakeholders expect to receive. It represents the demand side of the protection  ES. This value is currently evaluated qualitatively via dedicated workshops. The Rockfall Protection Index, developed within the Arange project, was adopted to measure the % of blocks stopped by the forest.  It considers forest (density, DBH, species), slope (length, steepness, height difference, cliff height)  and block (diameter, shape, type) features. Forest management costs represent the expenditures of forest management in order to maintain the protective role of the stand. We adopted a 2% interest rate in a 25 years period.  To estimate the cost of a  standard protective structure as effective as the forest, we designed net fences according to the ETAG 027 EU guidelines, with a site-specific approach. Their sizing considers the 95° quantile of blocks distribution, integrated with safety factors. Has  the forest a significant protective  role? NO YES NO YES OPTION A: Forest protection is irrelevant and insufficient Option A: the forest protection value is equal to the discounted forest management costs 𝑃𝑣 = 𝑀𝑖 0𝑡∙  1(1 + 𝑟)𝑖 𝑃𝑣 is the protection value ; 𝑀 is the NPV of the management expenditures i incurred in the period from 0 to t, discounted at the rate r. Is Forest effectiveness > Desired protection level ? Replacement Cost approach OPTION B: Forest protection is relevant but insufficient OPTION C: Forest protection is relevant and sufficient Option C: the forest protection value is equal to the cost of the defensive structure needed if there was no forest. 𝑃𝑣 = 𝐹𝑠 ∙ K 𝑟𝑒𝑑 − 𝑀𝑖 ∙  1(1 + 𝑟)𝑖0𝑡 𝑃𝑣 is the protection value; 𝐹𝑠 is the cost of an alternative standard protective structure; 𝐾𝑟𝑒𝑑  is the reduction coefficient describing the forest effectiveness; 𝑀 is the NPV of the management expenditures i incurred in the period from 0 to t, discounted at the rate r. Option B: the forest protection value is equal to the cost of building a smaller protective structure  𝑃𝑣 = 𝐹𝑠 − 𝐹𝑤𝑓 −  𝑀𝑖 ∙  1(1+𝑟)𝑖0𝑡  𝑃𝑣 is the protection value ;𝐹𝑠 is the cost of an alternative standard protective structure;𝐹𝑤𝑓 is the cost of the smaller structure built considering the forest role;𝑀 is the NPV of the management expenditures i incurred in the period from 0 to t, discounted at the rate r. According to the Replacement Cost approach, the protection value of the forest is equal to the cost of building protective structure to reproduce its benefits. It is an indirect method based on technical, forest and economic data.  AUTHORS: Cristian Accastello; Simone Blanc; Stefano Bruzzese; Filippo Brun Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences (DISAFA) - University of Turin Presenting Author:  Cristian Accastello E-mail: cristian.accastello@unito.it www. Alpine-space.eu/projects/rockthealps ROCKtheALPS Alpine Forests are  Rock Stars! Follow us on Researchgate® = + 

ASFORESEE - A multidisciplinary model to assess forest protection service against rockfall in the Alpine Space

https://iris.unito.it/bitstream/2318/1784610/1/Poster_ASFORESEE_4.pdf

ASFORESEE - A multidisciplinary model to assess forest protection service against rockfall in the Alpine Space

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