Mathematical optimization models for fuelwood production
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Mathematical optimization models for fuelwood production Konstantinos Petridis1 · Garyfallos Arabatzis2 · Angelo Sifaleras1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017
Abstract Forests are among the most sensitive systems in nature. This is attributed to the fact that, forests are directly affected by fluctuations in price of fossil fuels. Wood products and especially forest fuel products are accessible by anyone, without any prior processing. As forest fuel is a subsidy for fossil fuels (oil) for heating purposes, households turn to forest fuel especially in countries that are heavily impacted by economic recession. The over-exploitation of this natural resource leads the forest to abnormal situation and eventually to deforestation. The exhaust of the natural resource capital has negative impact not only on the local economy, where fuelwood market contributes especially in mountainous regions, but also on the environmental stability of ecosystems. In this paper, two multi-period Linear Programming models are proposed for management of coppice forests. The aim of these models is to maximize the Net Present Value, which is constructed as a function of the revenue from trading fuelwood (price times the logged quantities) minus the transportation cost from the forest to merchants. Two aspects have been investigated in this paper; sustainability and maximum yield. The sustainability aspect is guaranteed by imposing constraints for equalization of non-logged areas at the end of the planning horizon. With maximum yield aspect, the maximization of the logged quantities (and therefore the maximization of the objective function) is guaranteed. The model is solved for various scenarios regarding transportation cost. The applicability of the model is demonstrated through a real-world case study of an even coppice forest in Achladochori–Aggistro–Sidirokastro. The proposed model
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Angelo Sifaleras [email protected] Konstantinos Petridis [email protected] Garyfallos Arabatzis [email protected]
1
Department of Applied Informatics, School of Information Sciences, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatias Str., 54636 Thessaloníki, Greece
2
Department of Forestry and Management of the Environment and Natural Resources, Democritus University of Thrace, Pantazidou 193, 68200 Orestiada, Greece
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Ann Oper Res
is easy to be implemented, since it uses only the initial conditions of the forest (area) and can be applied to even and uneven aged forests. Keywords Mathematical programming · Sensitivity analysis · Scheduling · Natural resources management Mathematics Subject Classification 90C05 · 90C31 · 90B35 · 91B76
1 Introduction Forest production and scheduling are among the most significant areas in conservation of natural resources. When logging is scheduled in a way so that environmental balance is guaranteed, the forest can potentially provide logging quantities theoretically for infinite time horizon. However, due to illegal logging, forests sustain heavy losses and environmental disorders each year, leading to decreas
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