Development of Ecological Land Classification and mapping in support of forest management in northern Newfoundland,Canada

For the sustainable development of forest land, as recently prescribed by the Canadian Forest Strategy, a land classification project in northern Newfoundland was initiated to support the local forest management activities. The method adopted here is a modification of the Canadian Committee for Ecological Land Classification's (CCELC) system, and it applies various levels of mapping to uniform areas based on geomorphology, soils, vegetation, climate, water, and fauna.In this study, all CCELC levels were mapped; resulting maps were digitized and imported into a Geographic Informations System (GIS). The GIS data base contained the following maps: 1) digital terrain model, 2) bedrock geology, 3) surficial geology, 4) forest inventory, and 5) various levels of the ecological land classification, including Vegetation Types at the lowest level. In addition to the mapping, mensurational data were analyzed to provide stand and stock tables for each of the forest types, including growth curves that could be entered into specific forest growth modelling systems to predict wood supply scenarios based upon different management interventions.     

A framework for assessment and monitoring of arthropods in a lowland tropical forest

By applying principles of adaptive management, and by using the valuable information that arthropods provide from assessment and monitoring programs, managers can identify and reduce possible impacts on biodiversity in development projects. In 1996, the Smithsonian Institution's Monitoring and Assessment of Biodiversity program worked together with Shell Prospecting and Development Peru to establish an adaptive management program to protect biodiversity in a natural gas exploration project in a Peruvian rainforest. In this paper, we outlined the conceptual steps involved in establishing an assessment and monitoring program for arthropods, including setting objectives, evaluating the results and making decisions. We also present the results of the assessment using some of groups of arthropods, and summarize the steps taken to identify appropriate groups for monitoring.     

A framework for assessment and monitoring of small mammals in a lowland tropical forest

Development projects in tropical forests can impact biodiversity.Assessment and monitoring programs based on the principles of adaptive management assist managers to identify and reduce suchimpacts. The small mammal community is one important component ofa forest ecosystem that may be impacted by development projects. In 1996, a natural gas exploration project was initiated in a Peruvian rainforest. The Smithsonian Institution's Monitoring andAssessment of Biodiversity program cooperated with Shell Prospecting and Development Peru to establish an adaptive management program to protect the region's biodiversity. In thisarticle, we discuss the role of assessing and monitoring small mammals in relation to the natural gas project. We outline theconceptual issues involved in establishing an assessment andmonitoring program, including setting objectives, evaluating the results and making appropriate decisions. We also summarizethe steps taken to implement the small mammal assessment, provideresults from the assessment and discuss protocols to identifyappropriate species for monitoring.     

Desertification control: A framework for action

Desertification is a little-understood term that aggregates several land degradation processes occurring in the arid regions of the world. The major processes are vegetation degradation, water erosion, wind erosion, salinization, and soil compaction. Water erosion is the principal threat to environmental stability in both arid and humid climatic zones. Land degradation is generally reversible unless damage is very severe or soils are shallow. Practices to control land degradation are widely available but are not put to use for many reasons. Absence of a food crisis in developed countries is one of the important reasons. A related reason is the perception that no real problem exists. A third reason is that degradation control is not cost effective, except for controlling salinity and compaction. It is time to change emphasis from reducing on-site damage to reducing off-site damage.     

An ecological framework for resource management in British Columbia

British Columbia's landmass encompasses a complex diversity of ecosystems as a result of its diverse physiography, geology and climate. Resource planners and managers, depending upon their management objectives, use ecological information at different scales, from the very broad regional level to the local or site-specific level. The Ecoregion Classification and the Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification systems provide the means for resource managers and others in British Columbia concerned with the environment to understand, manage, and communicate about the diverse ecosystems of the province.This paper outlines this multi-level regional ecological classification and describes how it is being applied by resource managers from various resource agencies and organizations responsible for forest, wildlife and habitat management in British Columbia.     

Analysing land cover changes for understanding of forest dynamics using temporal forest management plans

This study analyses forest dynamics and land use/land cover change over a 43-year period using spatial-stand-type maps of temporal forest management plans of Karaisal? Forest Enterprise in the Eastern Mediterranean Region of Turkey. Stand parameters (tree species, crown closures and developmental stages) of the dynamics and changes caused by natural or artificial intervention were introduced and mapped in a Geographic Information System (GIS) and subjected to fragmentation analysis using FRAGSTATS. The Karaisal? Forest Enterprise was first planned in 1969 and then the study area was planned under the Mediterranean Forest Use project in 1991 and five-term forest management plans were made. In this study, we analysed only four periods (excluding 1982 revision plans): 1969, 1991, 2002 and 2012. Between 1969 and 2012, overall changes included a net increase of 3,026 ha in forested areas. Cumulative forest improvement accounted for 2.12 % and the annual rate of total forest improvement averaged 0.08 %. In addition, productive forest areas increased from 36,174 to 70,205 ha between 1969 and 2012. This translates into an average annual productive forest improvement rate of 1.54 %. At the same time, fully covered forest areas with crown closure of “3” (>70 %) increased about 21,321 ha, and young forest areas in developmental stage of “a” (diameter at breast height (dbh)?<?8 cm) increased from 716 to 13,305 ha over the 43-year study period. Overall changes show that productive and fully covered forest areas have increased egregiously with a focus on regenerated and young developmental stages. A spatial analysis of metrics over the 43-year study period indicated a more fragmented landscape resulting in a susceptible forest to harsh disturbances.     

Forest dynamics modelling under natural fire cycles: A tool to define natural mosaic diversity for forest management

In natural boreal forests, disturbances such as fire and variation in surficial deposits create a mosaic of forest stands with different species composition and age. At the landscape level, this variety of stands can be considered as the natural mosaic diversity. In this paper, we describe a model that can be used to estimate the natural diversity level of landscapes. We sampled 624 stands for tree species composition and surficial deposits in eight stand-age classes corresponding to eight fire episodes in the region of Lake Duparquet, Abitibi, Québec at the southern fringe of the Boreal Forest. For six surficial deposit types, stand composition data were used to define equations for vegetation changes with time for a chronosequence of 230 years for four forest types. Using Van Wagner's (1978) model of age class distribution of stands, the proportion of each forest type for several lengths of fire cycle were defined. Finally, for real landscapes (ecological districts) of the ecological region of the Basses-Terres d'Amos, the proportion of forest types were weighted by the proportion of each surficial deposit type using ecological map information. Examples of the possible uses of the model for management purposes, such as biodiversity conservation and comparisons of different landscapes in terms of diversity and sensitivity to fire regime changes, are discussed.     

Forest ecological classification and mapping: Their application for ecosystem management in Newfoundland

A prerequisite to sustaining ecosystems is the inventory and classification of landscape structure and composition. Ecological classification and mapping involves the delineation of landscapes into easily recognizable units. Topography, soils, vegetation, physical landscape form, and successional pathways are delineation criteria commonly used.Damman (1967) developed a forest type classification system for Newfoundland using vegetation, soil and landforms as the defining criteria. Damman's forest types were used in combination with mensurational data to assign forest types to timber volume productivity classes. Since each of the Damman forest types is associated with characteristic soils, parent materials, moisture regime and topographic position, the mapping units are similar to Canada Land Inventory (CLI) mapping units. Field work to confirm the correlation between Damman forest types and CLI capability classes was initiated in 1993. CLI maps were recoded in 1994 and Damman forest types were determined; resulting ecosystem-based maps provide a common framework to assess forestry/wildlife interactions in an ecosystem planning process.     

Ecological land classification as a basic theme for the management of wildlands in Tennessee: A start

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) owns and/or cooperatively manages nearly 247 000 ha scattered across the state. To aid the management of this diversity of soils, landforms, and plant communities, TWRA has selected a flexible, ecological land classification system developed for the Interior Uplands in southeastern United States. Landtypes are the most detailed unit of the 5-level hierarchy. To date, four wildlife management areas and one state wetland have been mapped and entered into the agency s Geographic Information System (GIS). These five tracts are in the Upper Coastal Plain of west Tennessee, in the Western and Eastern Highland Rim regions of middle Tennessee, and in the Cumberland Mountains of east Tennessee. The history, physiography, geology, soils, topography, and vegetation of each area are discussed. After forest cover type and age information is merged with the landtypes, wildlife habitat modelling will commence.     

Indices for assessment and monitoring of large mammals within an adaptive management framework

Many development projects intended to exploit natural resourcesare occurring in fragile ecosystems, and therefore the need forsound biodiversity assessment and monitoring programs is growing.Large mammals are important components of these fragile ecosystems, yet there are few strategies that attempt to assess and monitor entire large mammal communities in relation to development projects. We propose the use of two indices applied within a framework of adaptive management. An occurrence indexassesses the composition and distribution of large mammals at a site, and an abundance index monitors the abundance of large mammals over time in relation to development. We discuss the design, applicability and effectiveness of these indices based onour experience with a natural gas development project in the Amazon forests of southeastern Peru.     

A selection of forest condition indicators for monitoring

Regional monitoring and assessments of the health of forested ecosystems require indicators of forest conditions and environmental stresses. Indicator selections depend on objectives and the strategy for data collection and analysis. This paper recommends a set of indicators to signal changes in forest ecosystem distribution, productivity, and disturbance. Additional measurements are recommended to help ascribe those changes to climate variation, atmospheric deposition, and land use patterns. The rationale for these indicators is discussed in the context of a sequential monitoring and assessment strategy.     

Modeling biogeochemistry and forest management practices for assessing GHGs mitigation strategies in forested wetlands

Despite the importance of forested wetland in the global carbon cycle, no widely applicable ecosystem model exists for this ecosystem. This study reports the linkage between Wetland-DNDC and MIKE SHE for carbon dynamics and GHGs mitigation strategies analyses in forested wetland. Wetland-DNDC was modified by parameterizing forest management practices and refining anaerobic biogeochemical processes. Mortality due to senescence was estimated as a function of tree age or as a function of the relative biomass. We used a harvesting damage mortality coefficient as a linear function of time with three parameters: Initial mortality, Duration of the damage and Intensity of the initial harvesting. The model was validated against experimental data obtained from the GNF site near Florida. As a preliminary application, we simulated the effect of water table position and forest management practices on GHGs emissions and carbon dynamics to test the capabilities of the models for simulating seasonal and long-term carbon budget in forested wetland.     

A community classification system for forest evaluation: Development,validation, and extrapolation

A community classification system integrating vegetation and landforms was developed for the 8,054-ha Cheatham Wildlife Management Area (CWMA), located on the Western Highland Rim of Tennessee, USA, to obtain information on which to base multiresource land management decisions. A subjective procedure (synthesis tables) and several objective techniques (factor analysis, cluster analysis, and canonical discrimination) were used to evaluate importance values of overstory and midstory species, coverage values of understory species, and topographic parameters. These procedures were used collectively to guide and to provide evidence for interpretation of vegetational patterns on the landscape. The eight discrete communities identified on a 482-ha compartment within the CWMA were: northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.), chestnut oak (Q. prinus L.), scarlet oak (Q. coccinea Muenchh.), yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.), sycamore-sweetgum (Platanus occidentalis L.-Liquidambar styraciflua L.), black oak-hickory (Q. velutina Lam.-Carya spp.), post oak (Q. stellata Wangenh.), and American beech (Fagus grandifolia Ehrh.) communities. The classification system was validated with an independent data set. The eight communities were successfully extrapolated to an unsampled portion of the CWMA. Clearly, community analysis can become an important facet in forest management and may play a major role where a holistic understanding of vegetative relationships is essential.     

A Strategic Project Appraisal framework for ecologically sustainable urban infrastructure

Actors in the built environment are progressively considering environmental and social issues alongside functional and economic aspects of development projects. Infrastructure projects represent major investment and construction initiatives with attendant environmental, economic and societal impacts across multiple scales. To date, while sustainability strategies and frameworks have focused on wider national aspirations and strategic objectives, they are noticeably weak in addressing micro-level integrated decision making in the built environment, particularly for infrastructure projects. The proposed approach of this paper is based on the principal that early intervention is the most cost-effective and efficient means of mitigating the environmental effects of development projects, particularly macro infrastructure developments. A strategic overview of the various project alternatives, taking account for stakeholder and expert input, could effectively reduce project impacts/risks at low cost to the project developers but provide significant benefit to wider communities, including communities of future stakeholders. This paper is the first exploratory step in developing a more systematic framework for evaluating strategic alternatives for major metropolitan infrastructure projects, based on key sustainability principles. The developed Strategic Project Appraisal (SPA) framework, grounded in the theory of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), provides a means of practically appraising project impacts and alternatives in terms of quantified ecological limits; addresses the neglected topic of metropolitan infrastructure as a means of delivering sustainability outcomes in the urban context and more broadly, seeks to open a debate on the potential for SEA methodology to be more extensively applied to address sustainability challenges in the built environment. Practically applied and timed appropriately, the SPA framework can enable better decision-making and more efficient resource allocation ensuring low impact infrastructure development.     

Classification and mapping forest sites using geographic information system (GIS): a case study in Artvin Province

The productivity of forest sites has been indirectly determined with solo wood production objective in forest management. Forest site productivity should, however, be determined directly in order to implement ecosystem based multipurpose forest management philosophy. This article tackles the problem in distinguishing and mapping forest sites using both direct method and indirect method in Genya Mountain located in central of Artvin State Forest Enterprise. About 112 sample plots were designed and distributed over the area. In each sample plot, soil samples were collected and the classical timber inventory measurements were taken. According to direct method, Soil Moisture Regime (SMR) method is preferred due to a water deficiency in the study area. Water holding capacity was used as an essential criterion for the classification of the forest site. Forest site classifications were assigned regarding the physiographic factors such as landform, aspect, and slope. Five different forest sites classes; dry, moderate fresh, fresh, humid and hygric were determined. According to direct method, the guiding curve was used to generate anamorphic site index (SI) equations and three site index classes; good (SI=I–II), medium (SI=III) and low (SI=IV–V) were determined. Some important differences between the methods were realized. The forest sites determined with site index estimation method indicate that site index I and II is 505.99 ha, III 1095.79 ha and IV and V 992.95 ha, whereas forest sites determined with direct method related to dry site of 937.58 ha, moderate fresh site of 931.90 ha, fresh site of 1,797.71 ha, humid site of 80.48 ha and hygric site of 356.55 ha. The forest site maps of both methods were created using GIS functions. The forest sites of open and degraded areas should be determined according to direct method.     

Top-down and bottom-up inventory approach for above ground forest biomass and carbon monitoring in REDD framework using multi-resolution satellite data

This study deals with the future scope of REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) and REDD+ regimes for measuring and monitoring the current state and dynamics of carbon stocks over time with integrated geospatial and field-based biomass inventory approach. Multi-temporal and multi-resolution geospatial synergic approach incorporating satellite sensors from moderate to high resolution with stratified random sampling design is used. The inventory process involves a continuous forest inventory to facilitate the quantification of possible CO₂ reductions over time using statistical up-scaling procedures on various levels. The combined approach was applied on a regional scale taking Himachal Pradesh (India), as a case study, with a hierarchy of forest strata representing the forest structure found in India. Biophysical modeling implemented revealed power regression model as the best fit (R ²?=?0.82) to model the relationship between Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and biomass which was further implemented to calculate multi-temporal above ground biomass and carbon sequestration. The calculated value of net carbon sequestered by the forests totaled to 11.52 million tons (Mt) over the period of 20 years at the rate of 0.58 Mt per year since 1990 while CO₂ equivalent reduced from the environment by the forests under study during 20 years comes to 42.26 Mt in the study area.     

Monitoring the health of a forest: A Canadian approach

In Canada, acid rain is the generic term encompassing all forms of air pollution — wet and dry deposition, gaseous pollutant concentrations, and airborne particulates. It was because these pollutants, alone or in combination, may directly or indirectly affect the heath of Canada's forests, that in 1984, the Canadian Forestry Service initiated a national forest monitoring program (Acid Rain National Early Warning System or ARNEWS).Research studies on pollutant effects of the past 15–20 years have demonstrated that it is not possible to define specific symptoms of acid rain or mixtures of pollutants on native tree species or specific responses of the forest ecosystem. Consequently, ARNEWS monitored incipient acid rain effects by determining the forest's state of health rather than by concentrating on specific pollutant responses.The detection system entails experienced insect and disease survey forest rangers assessing both specific plots and the forest as a whole for extraordinary forest damage. The techniques used include mensurational and symptomatological measurements as well as evaluation of stands for damage from natural and anthropogenic causes. Critical also to the system was the capability of the Canadian Forestry Service to support the detection system with research staff who could carry out studies to explain any abnormalities in forest condition detected during the annual surveys. The ultimate outcome of the monitoring system if unexplained forest damage is detected is a research project on possible causes.Contribution from Fourth World Wilderness Congress — Acid Rain Symposium, Denver (Estes Park), Colorado, September 11–18, 1987.