Decision support for evaluating the U.S. national criteria and indicators for forest ecosystem sustainability

Abstract

This paper describes and illustrates the use of the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system for evaluating the U.S. national criteria and indicators for forest ecosystem sustainability at the scale of Resource Planning Act (RPA) regions. The evaluation component of EMDS uses a logic engine to evaluate landscape condition, and the RPA-scale application demonstrates one practical approach to unifying knowledge for evaluation of forest ecosystem sustainability. EMDS (version 3.0.2) is an extension to ArcMap (ArcGIS 8.x), and is implemented as a general application framework that provides integrated decision support for environmental evaluation and planning at multiple spatial scales. In this study, national criteria two and six (productive capacity of forest ecosystems and socioeconomic benefits derived from forest management, respectively) were evaluated. Most data needed to evaluate criterion 2 were available in a recent national report, and results of evaluation indicate strong support for the proposition that productive capacity of forest ecosystems is adequate within all RPA regions. Evidence for suitable levels of socioeconomic benefits varied from weak to moderate across RPA regions, but conclusions were substantially influenced by missing data within all subcriteria.

Parent Publication

• Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere

Citation

Reynolds, Keith M. 2006. Decision support for evaluating the U.S. national criteria and indicators for forest ecosystem sustainability. In: Aguirre-Bravo, C.; Pellicane, Patrick J.; Burns, Denver P.; and Draggan, Sidney, Eds. 2006. Monitoring Science and Technology Symposium: Unifying Knowledge for Sustainability in the Western Hemisphere Proceedings RMRS-P-42CD. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 729-735