EcoSystem DSS

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Working with leading forestry ecologists, Sanborn has developed and implemented an Ecosystem Decision Support System (EcoDSS) based on the ArcGIS platform. It integrates a suite of applications for addressing ecosystem management requirements in support of forestry operations on military installations.

It is common for forest land managers to use “Ecosystem Management” guidelines to develop stand prescriptions, apply growth and yield projections, and plan forestry activities to achieve desired forestry and ecological management objectives. Often, this needs to be accomplished while still growing commercial timber, protecting endangered/threatened species and cultural resources, managing for a wide variety of forest types and wildlife habitat, protecting and enhancing unique ecosystems, and preventing soil erosion.

Forest activities are continually being planned by local personnel based on a myriad of data parameters. The problem of how to spatially distribute forest prescriptions and other activities to achieve a wide variety of goals that often compete with each other is being addressed by the use of Sanborn’s EcoDSS product.

Tools for Ecosystem Management

The ultimate goal of the EcoDSS is to improve the ecological landscape and promote better forest management, by enhancing communication and clarifying visions between forest managers and environmental personnel. The EcoDSS assists with the challenge of assigning prescriptions to the numerous forest stands while considering environmental protection requirements, and Ecosystem Management principles.

The EcoDSS has been designed to support consideration of management issues such as Old Growth, Streamside Management Zones, Erosion Control, Threatened /Endangered Species, Wildlife Management, Cultural Resources and Wetlands.

The EcoDSS was specifically designed to utilize an organization’s forest inventory database and custom prescriptions, so the application can easily be customized for other organizations and management situations.

Seamless FVS Integration

A core component of the EcoDSS is the integration of the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) software (developed by the USDA Forest Service) with the inventory system of the specific installation. This includes deriving tree lists for the inventoried stands within the management area, developing the custom FVS key files and calculations, defining the specific prescriptions for different land types, and integrating the operational FVS Suppose interface into the core EcoDSS ArcMap interface.

There are 21 existing geographic variants of FVS for use around the country, and other specific local growth models could be incorporated if available. The ability to project forest structure into the future is crucial because it allows resource managers to assess the future impact of current decisions on wildlife, cultural resources, training areas, and timber production. Output FVS projections are seamlessly transferred into the ArcGIS GeoDatabase structure to facilitate querying, reporting and mapping. Constraint analysis tools aid the user in identifying where conflicts occur between current features and planned stand prescriptions. Depending on the type of conflict that exists, the user can modify the prescription for a specific stand to reduce the conflict.

Prescription Constraint Analysis

Because forest activities often conflict, a usable system must be able to identify potential problems before they happen, and have the flexibility to make adjustments. The iterative scenario modeling design used by EcoDSS allows users to perform a constraint analysis, and then adjust their plans to accommodate values at risk.

A combination of automatic and spatial allocation tools aid the user in selecting appropriate stand prescriptions while minimizing the conflict between land uses and ecosystem values.

Leveraging the ArcMap Framework

Each module includes utilities for displaying, querying, and printing maps for a number of GIS data layers, as well as creating reports on that data, all integrated into the ArcMap framework. Access to specific modules and capabilities, is provided through the use of custom toolbars available within the ArcMap interface.