Spatial Modelling in Forest Ecology and Management: A Case Study

This book focuses on the integration of spatial statistics, GIS-technology, ecosystem studies, and scenario modelling. Its main aim is to extend the information gained at the stand level to larger spatial scales, i.e. to forest districts, forest landscapes or to the total area of Lower Saxony. The studies demonstrate the potential and limitations of regionalization approaches for forest ecological variables. The results provide valuable spatial information for forest managers and landscape planners as well as for policy-makers. Some spatial models outlined in this book have been implemented as useful tools in present forest management. With current improvements of data quality, e.g. from remote sensing and refined ground-based inventories, methods are now available to develop large-scale approaches to forest ecology and management. This book is an indispensable tool for scientists and those involved in forest management.

In this book, GIS-based geomorphological, statistical, and geostatistical methods are used to improve the ecological site description of forest areas. Possibilities and limitations of the regionalization of climatic, soil, and macrofauna point measurements are presented. The resulting maps of indicators provide a broad and precise basis for forest planning and are essential for an integration of ecological and economic aspects of forest management.The applicability for forest practice is exemplified by the delimitation of forest site classes and of forest growth districts as well as the modelling of potential natural woodland communities. A scenario technique was used to simulate the forest stand development in the Harz mountains and to reveal the economic and ecological results of new management guidelines that are favoured by the forest administration. Spatial modelling and GIS-based information and planning systems provide improved data bases that are valuable instruments to describe the consequences of different management guidelines. Thus, they make a major contribution to a fruitful discussion about sustainable forest management.