Designing Green Landscapes

While the natural resources of the earth continue to diminish, “Green Landscapes” arebeingcalleduponto produceanincreasingrangeofgoodsandservices.A Green Landscape is a rural expanse of scenery that may comprise a variety of visible f- tures. This book focuses on forested landscapes, although much of the theory and most of the practical applications are valid for any area of land. In many regions of the world, people depend on forests for their livelihood and well-being. Forests provide multiple services, – bene ts generated for society by the existence of c- tain forest ecosystems and their attributes. The value of these bene ts is often only recognised when they are lost after removal of the trees, resulting in ooding, loss of income and declining species diversity. Forests provide multiple services. However, the amount and quality, and the p- ticular mix of these services depend on the condition of the resource. Landscape design is a proven way to ensure that certain desired bene ts will be available in space and time. It provides the foundation and an essential starting point for s- tainable management. This volume, which forms part of Springer’s book series Managing Forest Ecosystems,presentsstate-of-the-artresearchresults,visionsandtheories,aswell as speci c methodsfor designing Green Landscapes, as a basis for sustainable ecos- tem management. The book contains a wealth of information which may be useful to companymanagement,the legal and policy environmentand forestry administ- tors. The volume is subdivided into four sections.

Von Gadow and Pukkala’s unique, Designing Green Landscapes, presents the latest thinking in adaptive management for forest ecosystems. Based on the ‘multiple path’ principle, this approach links species choice and silvicultural methods with changing demands and changing environmental conditions, to ensure continuous adaptation, often several times within the lifetime of a tree.

The ‘multiple path’ principle at the core of this approach represents a robust theoretical framework for designing forested landscapes. It provides a logical basis both for coordinating spatial objectives and for integrating varied forms of expertise; it limits planning horizons to realistic timeframes; and it allows for forecasts based on current real attributes of spatially explicit land parcels. This is in stark contrast with traditional forestry practices which simply assess the forest resource at regular time intervals and prescribe standard management schedules for specific forest types.

Presenting new approaches to land management, this book represents a useful reference text for researchers and graduate students in forest management, ecology, modelling and landscape planning. It will also provide a valuable resource for professionals working for Land Management Agencies or as environmental consultants.