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Sustainable Forestry Management and Technologies

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Forestry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2024) | Viewed by 3292

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Vegetal Production and Forestry Resources, University of Valladolid, 47002 Valladolid, Spain
Interests: big data; remote sensing; forest decision support systems; computing; artificial intelligence; forest sustainability; forest inventory; forest monitoring; wood science; climate change; forest management; forest ecology; forest products; lidar remote sensing; forest modeling; forest biometrics

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Guest Editor
Föra Forest Technologies S.L.L., Universidad de Valladolid, Campus de Soria, 42004 Soria, Spain
Interests: big data; remote sensing; forest decision support systems; computing; artificial intelligence; forest sustainability; forest inventory; forest monitoring
Forestry Engineering School, University of Vigo, University Campus A Xunqueira s/n, 36005 Pontevedra, Spain
Interests: environmental impact assessment; wildlife management; silviculture; planning; climate change; agroforestry; landscape ecology; sustainable forest management; forest industry; fire; remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centro de Investigación Forestal de Lourizán, Xunta de Galicia, 36080 Pontevedra, Spain
Interests: sustainable forest management; forest inventory; forest growth and yield modeling; tree biomass and carbon; non-wood forest products

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The growth of technology in recent decades has ushered in a new era of sustainable forest management. This is due to the significant number of tools that have been created, new methodologies that have emerged, and the wealth of information and data available for incorporation into decision-making processes. This growth has, for example, contributed to the adoption of a new paradigm for forest inventory using active sensors such as ALS or TLS, marking the onset of the big data era in forest management.

Furthermore, the increasing availability of diverse data sources, like satellite data, has made it easier to monitor forests and has opened new possibilities for obtaining spatial and temporal information. However, this framework implies that forest managers must require more knowledge in handling big data to achieve the results they seek. In this context, the development of tools facilitates the exchange of knowledge among users, regardless of their level of technological expertise.

In this context, artificial intelligence is not merely a concept for the future, it is already part of the present. Several tools and methods offer robust assessments of big data, leading to extraordinary results in areas such as species recognition, land use cover changes, and pest prediction, among many others. However, the applications extend beyond land monitoring. For instance, we are witnessing the emergence of future applications like unmanned forest machinery, which could be a game-changer in forest management and harvesting.

The present and the future hold great promise, and this Special Issue aims to compile recent research results and studies in this field. It will explore how these advances contribute to our understanding of forest sustainability and their practical applications. Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Artificial intelligence applications with sustainable forest management purposes;
  • Forest monitoring tools based on active and passive sensor data;
  • Forest tools and decisions support systems developments for sustainable forest management;
  • Parametric and non-parametric modeling to describe and predict forest characteristics;
  • Hardware improvements of passive and active sensors and their applications in forest;
  • New forest measures technology and software.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Francisco Rodríguez-Puerta
Dr. Fernando Pérez-Rodríguez
Dr. Juan Picos
Dr. Esteban Gómez-García
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • big data
  • remote sensing
  • forest decision support systems
  • computing
  • artificial intelligence
  • forest sustainability
  • forest inventory
  • forest monitoring

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 1799 KiB  
Article
Assessment of Mycological Possibility Using Machine Learning Models for Effective Inclusion in Sustainable Forest Management
by Raquel Martínez-Rodrigo, Beatriz Águeda, Teresa Ágreda, José Miguel Altelarrea, Luz Marina Fernández-Toirán and Francisco Rodríguez-Puerta
Sustainability 2024, 16(13), 5656; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135656 - 2 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1414
Abstract
The integral role of wild fungi in ecosystems, including provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services, is well recognized. However, quantifying and predicting wild mushroom yields is challenging due to spatial and temporal variability. In Mediterranean forests, climate-change-induced droughts further impact mushroom production. Fungal [...] Read more.
The integral role of wild fungi in ecosystems, including provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services, is well recognized. However, quantifying and predicting wild mushroom yields is challenging due to spatial and temporal variability. In Mediterranean forests, climate-change-induced droughts further impact mushroom production. Fungal fruiting is influenced by factors such as climate, soil, topography, and forest structure. This study aims to quantify and predict the mycological potential of Lactarius deliciosus in sustainably managed Mediterranean pine forests using machine learning models. We utilize a long-term dataset of Lactarius deliciosus yields from 17 Pinus pinaster plots in Soria, Spain, integrating forest-derived structural data, NASA Landsat mission vegetation indices, and climatic data. The resulting multisource database facilitates the creation of a two-stage ‘mycological exploitability’ index, crucial for incorporating anticipated mycological production into sustainable forest management, in line with what is usually done for other uses such as timber or game. Various Machine Learning (ML) techniques, such as classification trees, random forest, linear and radial support vector machine, and neural networks, were employed to construct models for classification and prediction. The sample was always divided into training and validation sets (70-30%), while the differences were found in terms of Overall Accuracy (OA). Neural networks, incorporating critical variables like climatic data (precipitation in January and humidity in November), remote sensing indices (Enhanced Vegetation Index, Green Normalization Difference Vegetation Index), and structural forest variables (mean height, site index and basal area), produced the most accurate and unbiased models (OAtraining = 0.8398; OAvalidation = 0.7190). This research emphasizes the importance of considering a diverse array of ecosystem variables for quantifying wild mushroom yields and underscores the pivotal role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and remotely sensed observations in modeling non-wood forest products. Integrating such models into sustainable forest management plans is crucial for recognizing the ecosystem services provided by them. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Forestry Management and Technologies)
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18 pages, 6583 KiB  
Article
Landscape Restoration Using Individual Tree Harvest Strategies
by Robert Schriver, John Sessions and Bogdan M. Strimbu
Sustainability 2024, 16(12), 5124; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16125124 - 16 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1040
Abstract
Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis Hook.) is a native species west of the Rocky Mountains that has become noxious as its area increased ten times in the last 140 years. Restoration of the landscapes affected by the spread of juniper through harvesting poses [...] Read more.
Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis Hook.) is a native species west of the Rocky Mountains that has become noxious as its area increased ten times in the last 140 years. Restoration of the landscapes affected by the spread of juniper through harvesting poses several challenges related to the sparse spatial distribution (trees per hectare) of the resource. Therefore, the objective of the present study is to develop a harvest scheduling strategy that converts the western juniper from a noxious species to a timber resource. We propose a procedure that aggregates individual trees into elementary harvest units by considering the location of each tree. Using the coordinates of each harvest unit and its corresponding landing, we developed a spatially explicit algorithm that aims at the maximization of net revenue from juniper harvest. We applied the proposed landscape restoration approach to two areas of similar size and geomorphology. We implemented the restoration algorithm using two heuristics: simulated annealing and record-to-record travel. To account for the closeness to the mill, we considered two prices at the landing for the juniper: 45 USD/ton and 65 USD/ton. Our results suggest that restoration is possible at higher prices, but it is economically infeasible when prices are low. Simulated annealing outperformed record-to-record travel in both study areas and for both prices. Our approach and formulation to the restoration of landscapes invaded by western juniper could be applied to similar instances where complex stand structures preclude the use of traditional forest stand-level harvest scheduling and require a more granular approach. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Forestry Management and Technologies)
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