A decision support system for forest harvest planning in North Carolina

Abstract

Forest preharvest planning (FPP) can enhance recognition of environmentally-sensitive areas in advance of forest harvesting, including soil and water resources. While preharvest planning is often a standard component of many forest harvesting operations, either explicitly with paper-based checklists or implicitly with best professional judgment, Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is frequently underutilized by forest managers, consultants, landowners, and loggers (forestry users) during this forest management activity. According to the Final Report for the North Carolina Forestry Best Management Practices (BMP) Implementation Survey 2000-2003, preharvest planning resulted in higher implementation of BMPs for water quality. However, in general throughout North Carolina, information about the availability of state-of-the-art GIS technology, publically available GIS data, and Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is often not well disseminated to forestry users. In order to address this gap in information transfer, a Forestry GIS Web Portal was created that includes a trial version of a web-based decision support system (DSS) for FPP (FPP-DSS) designed using FOSS. Based on feedback from forestry users, opportunities will be pursued to expand the trial version of the FPP-DSS to a statewide system available to natural resource managers and citizens throughout North Carolina. Through the use of current GIS technology and data, a DSS for forest harvest planning in North Carolina can offer additional information to support the protection of water quality and soil resources, and further support the implementation of forestry BMPs for water quality.

Citation

Jones, D.G.; Bailey, A.D.; Allen, T.B.; O'Loughlin, D.K.; Boggs, J.L. 2010. A decision support system for forest harvest planning in North Carolina. In: Proceedings of the American Water Resources Association 2010 Spring Speciality Conference. March 29-31, 2010. Orlando, FL.