A Hybrid Modelling Approach to the Assessment of Sustainability of Forest Ecosystems and their Values
Hamish Kimmins
University of British Columbia
Juan A Blanco
University of British Columbia
Brad Seely
University of British Columbia
Clive Welham
University of British Columbia
Kim Scoullar
320 pages, 234 x 156 mm
Publisher:
Earthscan from Routledge
Modelling is an important tool for understanding the complexity of forest ecosystems and the variety of interactions of ecosystem components, processes and values. This book describes the hybrid approach to modelling forest ecosystems and their possible response to natural and management-induced disturbance. The book describes the FORECAST family of ecosystem management models at three different spatial scales (tree, stand and landscape), and compares them with alternative models at these three spatial scales.
The book will help forest managers to understand what to expect from ecosystem-based forest models; serve as a tool for use in teaching about sustainability, scenario analysis and value trade-offs in natural resources management; and assist policy makers, managers and researches working in assessment of sustainable forest management and ecosystem management. Several real-life examples of using the FORECAST family of models in forest management and other applications are presented from countries including Canada, China, Spain and the USA, to illustrate the concepts described in the text. The book also demonstrates how these models can be extended for scenario and value trade-off analysis through visualisation and educational or management games.
Preface
1 Introduction: Why do we need ecosystem-level models as a decision-support tool in forestry?
2 Ecological and environmental concepts that should be addressed in forestry decision support tools
3 Hybrid simulation (HS) in the context of other classes of forest models, and the development of the forecast family of HS models
4 Forestry in transition: The need for individual tree models
5 Stand-level models in forest management as tools to support ecosystem-based management
6 Landscape-level models in forest management
7 Educational models in forest management
8 How to develop a model for forest management
9 The role of ecosystem management models in adaptive management, certification and land reclamation
10 The future of hybrid models in forest management
References
Index
"Kimmins and his colleagues provide the definitive text on hybrid modelling approach based on 33 years working experience with the FORECAST family of hybrid models. Each chapter follows a logical progression and is very readable. This is the most significant contribution to forecasting future forests across levels of organization, bravo!" Changhui Peng, Canada Research Chair in Environment Modelling, Institute of Environment Sciences, Department of Biology Sciences, University of Quebec at Montreal
Hamish Kimmins has been a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia, Canada, since 1969. He is currently an emeritus professor after holding a Senior Canada Research Chair in Modelling the Sustainability of Forest Ecosystems, and is Director of the Forest Ecosystem Management Modelling Group in the Department of Forest Sciences. Kimmins is a former member of UNESCO's World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology (COMEST) and serves on many science advisory boards.
Juan A Blanco was awarded a PhD. in Forest Ecology from the Public University in 2004, for his examination of the influence of forest management on nutrient cycles in pine forests of the Pyrenees. He has published several papers and book chapters on this topic. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Forest Sciences, University of British Columbia.
Brad Seely was awarded a PhD. in terrestrial ecology from the Department of Biology at Boston University in 1996. He then worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow with Hamish Kimmins in the Forest Ecosystem Management Simulation group at UBC, developing the FORECAST and LLEMS models. Presently, he is a Research Associate in the Department of Forest Sciences at University of British Columbia.
Clive Welham joined the Forest Ecosystem Management Simulation Group, in the Department of Forest Sciences, following a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Botany Department at University of British Columbia, to which he still belongs.
Kim Scoullar is a professional programmer with more than 35 years of experience developing code for ecosystem models. He was the main developer of the FORCYTE series of models commissioned under the Energy from the Forest (ENFOR) project by the Government of Canada.
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