Towards sustainable timber harvesting of homogeneous stands: dynamic programming in synergy with forest growth simulatio
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Towards sustainable timber harvesting of homogeneous stands: dynamic programming in synergy with forest growth simulation Mario C. López‑Locés1 · Roger Z. Ríos‑Mercado1 · Oscar Alberto Aguirre‑Calderón2 · José Luis González‑Velarde3 Received: 21 January 2020 / Accepted: 13 February 2020 © Sociedad de Estadística e Investigación Operativa 2020
Abstract In this work, the problem of maximizing the volume of wood harvested in a single-species stand over a period of time is addressed. To this end, a solution that combines dynamic programming and a single-tree forest growth simulator is developed. In this method, the decision variable of the amount of wood to be harvested at each period is discretized. This ensures that the method finds a global optimal solution within the given discretization. In the past, there have been approaches that use exact methods which solve this problem, but these approaches consider the stand growth as a whole and require the simulator to meet certain conditions. In our work, a single-tree growth simulator is used. With these tools, different alternatives for the parameters of thinning percentage in each period, duration of the planning horizon, and the selection of the trees to be harvested, among others, are explored and assessed. The results showed that the proposed method is useful not only as a tool to optimize the harvesting of the timber of a single-species stand, but also to explore different alternatives to the usual practices, that continue to change constantly. Keywords Forest management · Dynamic programming · Forest growth simulation · Stand-level optimization · Thinning regime Mathematics Subject Classification 90-08 · 90B90 · 90C39 · 90C90
1 Introduction One of the decisions in forest management and planning is to determine the frequency and intensity of the treatments applied to a stand during a series of periods, to maximize the benefits obtained at the end of a planning horizon, whose duration * Roger Z. Ríos‑Mercado [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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can span several decades. This problem is known in the literature as the stand-level optimization problem (Haight 1987). As the trees in the stand grow continually during the timespan of the planning horizon, it is necessary to take this factor into consideration to deliver a solution that is as close as possible to a real case scenario. Additionally, to prevent the overexploitation of the stand and to promote the regeneration of the forest, the partial harvesting or treatment applied during each period must be subject to regulations that guarantee the preservation of the stand. Tahvonen and Rämö (2016) make a comparison between clear-cut and continuous cover regimes, favoring the latter not only in wood extraction, but also in esthetic and environmental conservation aspects. The stand-level optimization problem has been a subject of research since the decade of the 1960s, with the work of Chappelle and Nelson (1
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