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The Management of Industrial Forest Plantations. Theoretical Foundations and Applications provides a synthesis of current knowledge about industrial forestry management planning processes. It covers components of the forest supply chain ranging from modelling techniques to management planning approaches and information and communication technology support. It may provide effective support to education, research and outreach activities that focus on forest industrial plantations management. It may contribute further to support forest managers when developing industrial plantations management plans. The book includes the discussion of applications in 26 Management Planning in Actions boxes. These applications highlight the linkage between theory and practice and the contribution of models, methods and management planning approaches to the efficiency and the effectiveness of industrial plantations management planning.
Sustainability is a fairly old concept, born in the 18th century in the field of forestry, within a mono-functionality perspective. The concept has considerably evolved in the last few years towards a multi-functionality context, with applications reported in practically all areas of economic interest. On the other hand, modern sustainability is a complex problem, for two reasons: a) The multiplicity of functions of a very different nature involved in the process and b) The manner in which different segments of the society or stakeholders perceive the relative importance of these functions. For the above reasons, a realistic approach for dealing with the sustainability issue requires taking ...
Cork oak has historically been an important species in the western Mediterranean—ecologically as a canopy or “framework” tree in natural woodlands, and culturally as an economically valuable resource that underpins local economies. Both the natural woodlands and the derived cultural systems are experiencing rapid change, and whether or not they are resilient enough to adapt to that change is an open question. Cork Oak Woodlands on the Edge provides a synthesis of the most up-to-date, scientific, and practical information on the management of cork oak woodlands and the cultural systems that depend on cork oak. In addition, Cork Oak Woodlands on the Edge offers ten site profiles written ...
This collection of papers gives a broad overview of the state of the art in Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), in both theory and practice. Topical sections are ranging from preference modelling and methodological developments to a number of applications of MCDM thinking. Special sections are devoted to applications in natural resources and environmental management issues, to negotiation and group decision support, and to philosophical issues, particularly in the interface between systems thinking and MCDM. The book will be relevant not only to those working in the area of MCDM, but also to researchers and practitioners concerned with broader areas of management science, especially those concerned with decision support systems and negotiation support.
Climate changes, particularly warming trends, have been recorded around the globe. For many countries, these changes in climate have become evident through insect epidemics (e.g., Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic in Western Canada, bark beetle in secondary spruce forests in Central Europe), water shortages and intense forest fires in the Mediterranean countries (e.g., 2005 droughts in Spain), and unusual storm activities (e.g., the 2004 South-East Asia Tsunami). Climate changes are expected to impact vegetation as manifested by changes in vegetation extent, migration of species, tree species composition, growth rates, and mortality. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has included ...
Within the field of multiple criteria decision making, this volume covers the latest advances in multiple objective and goal programming as presented at the 2nd International Conference on Multi-Objective Programming and Goal Programming, Torremolinos, Spain, May 16 - 18, 1996. The book is an undispensable source of the latest research results, presented by the leading experts of the field.
This volume shows the state-of-the-art in both theoretical development and application of multiple objective and goal programming. Applications from the fields of supply chain management, financial portfolio selection, financial risk management, insurance, medical imaging, sustainability, nurse scheduling, project management, water resource management, and the interface with data envelopment analysis give a good reflection of current usage. A pleasing variety of techniques are used including models with fuzzy, group-decision, stochastic, interactive, and binary aspects. Additionally, two papers from the upcoming area of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms are included. The book is based on the papers of the 8th International Conference on Multi-Objective and Goal Programming (MOPGP08) which was held in Portsmouth, UK, in September 2008.
Decision making in land management involves preferential selection among competing alternatives. Often, such choices are difficult owing to the complexity of the decision context. Because the analytic hierarchy process (AHP, developed by Thomas Saaty in the 1970s) has been successfully applied to many complex planning, resource allocation, and priority setting problems in business, energy, health, marketing, natural resources, and transportation, more applications of the AHP in natural resources and environmental sciences are appearing regularly. This realization has prompted the authors to collect some of the important works in this area and present them as a single volume for managers and scholars. Because land management contains a somewhat unique set of features not found in other AHP application areas, such as site-specific decisions, group participation and collaboration, and incomplete scientific knowledge, this text fills a void in the literature on management science and decision analysis for forest resources.
Taking advantage of the many specialists visiting Spain prior to the INFORMS Meeting in Barcelona, hold from July 14th to July 17th 1997, we organized a work shop on Decision Analysis Applications at the Real Academia de Ciencias, Madrid, Spain, from J uly 11th to 12th 1997, under the sponsorship of de the Instituto Espaiia. This workshop had a precedent in the International Conference Decision Making: Towards the 21st Century also held at the Real Academia de Ciencias in 1993. The idea of organizing an event, this time devoted to applications of Decision Analysis, was due to Prof. Sixto Rfos, who some four years ago, .sponsored and encouraged by the Royal Academy of Sciences, was the creato...
This book presents a rich collection of studies on the analysis of sustainable development from a multiple criteria decision-making (MCDM) perspective, written by some of the most prominent authors in the field of MCDM/A. The book constitutes a unique international reference guide to the analysis, measurement, and management of sustainability in a multidimensional decision analysis context. Chiefly intended for academics and policymakers, it reflects some of the latest methodological advances in decision-making, which are illustrated in real-life applications to sustainability-related topics in both the private and public sector.