DecisionES is a project funded by the Marie Skodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) action under the European Union H2020. The consortium was built to include highly qualified research institutions in ten countries (i.e. Spain, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Costa Rica, Chile, Brazil, Canada and USA) that share complementary interests in key scientific disciplines for an ecosystem services supply chain.
The DecisionES network general objective is to enhance forest management planning and policy analysis by evolving an integrated and multifunctional ecosystem services supply approach thus effectively contributing to delivery of services under climate change. Further, an innovative dissemination and communication approach will be used to transfer of technology and knowledge to enhance forest management planning and policy analysis. DecisionES plans to realize its strategic vision and general objective through the integration of complementary state-of-the-art multidisciplinary expertise available in its beneficiary and partner institutions. Specific objectives of DecisionES are the generation of knowledge 1) to project forested landscapes and the provision of ecosystem services under different management regimes and scenarios of global change (WP2), 2) to integrate ecosystems management planning and policy processes to effectively address concerns with the sustainability of the provision of ecosystem services (WP3), 3) to develop computer-based tools to encapsulate all the models and methods for ecosystem management planning generated by the project (WP3) and 4) to develop a communication plan to disseminate and facilitate the utilization of new decision support tools by stakeholders in each country/geographical regions (WP4). These objectives will be achieved by integrating knowledge and tools developed under the work organized in the different work packages. DecisionES will contribute to a consistent worldwide quality reference for addressing the delivery of ecosystem services, with products being made available to public administrators, forest owners, and industry for enhanced integration of adaptive strategies in forest management planning and policy analysis in the context of global change.
The project has almost arrived to the end, the consortium has now used 93% of the Person Months and has achieved several interesting and good results. Up to now, the project has published more than 75 peer-reviewed publications, and several articles which are being revised. In addition, during the project 4 international confrences have been direcly organized by DecisionES, 1 in the US (2021), 2 in Spain (2024, 2026) and 1 in Brazil (2025) with an average of 100 attendants per meeting. During these years, members of the consortium have applied to different sources of funding to continue research and to ensure long-lasting colaboration as for example the preparation of an DecisionES MSCA Doctoral Network, national projects etc...
As main tools developped, researchers during these 4 years have developped several models and methods. It has also developped 3 full decision support tools. The most importants are:
- SIMPLE: SIstema Multicriterio para PLanificación Espacial. A New Landscape Tool to Prioritize Projects / Actions in the landscape.
- PrioriActions: Multi-action management planning tool
- Cell2Fire: A family of growth fire simulators. This includes Cell2Fire prometeus (Canada), Cel2Fire Scot and Burngman (Spain), Cell2Fire Kitral (Chile).
The SIMPLE system (Sistema Multicriterio de Planificación Espacial) is enabled system for environmental analysis and strategic and tactical planning. It's built as a web-bases system and combines various analytical tools, geodatabases and a GIS environment which may facilitate stakeholder participation.
Building on its core functionality of logic processing and decision modeling it implements a graphical workflow environment, advance strategic planning, and will in the future incorporate advanced tactical planning models to optimize the selection of actions to perform in order to achive certain objectives incorporating constraints.
Because SIMPLE is a generic solution framework, it can be applied to an extremely broad array of problems at virtually any and all spatial scales:
•Prioritising Forest Management Zones to Prevent Large Forest Fires.
•Defining suitatility areas for the provision of certain Ecosystem Service.
A short description of each tool its included here:
New Landscape Tool to Prioritize Projects / Actions in the landscape.
The SIMPLE system (Sistema Multicriterio de Planificación Espacial) is enabled system for environmental analysis and strategic and tactical planning. It's built as a web-bases system and combines various analytical tools, geodatabases and a GIS environment which may facilitate stakeholder participation.
Building on its core functionality of logic processing and decision modeling it implements a graphical workflow environment, advance strategic planning, and will in the future incorporate advanced tactical planning models to optimize the selection of actions to perform in order to achive certain objectives incorporating constraints.
Because SIMPLE is a generic solution framework, it can be applied to an extremely broad array of problems at virtually any and all spatial scales:
•Prioritising Forest Management Zones to Prevent Large Forest Fires.
•Defining suitatility areas for the provision of certain Ecosystem Service.
•Prioritising areas for conservation or restoration purposes.
Cell2Fire: A family of growth fire simulators.
Cell2Fire is a new cell-based forest and wildland landscape fire spread simulator. The fire environment is characterized by partitioning the landscape into a large number of homogeneous cells and specifying the fuel, weather, fuel moisture and topography attributes of each cell. Fire spread within each cell is assumed to be elliptical and governed by spread rates predicted by any independent fire spread model (e.g. the Canadian Forest Fire Behavior Prediction System). Cell2Fire exploits parallel computation methods which allows users to run large-scale simulations in short periods of time. It includes powerful statistical, graphical output, and spatial analysis features to facilitate the display and analysis of projected fire growth.
This includes Cell2Fire prometeus (Canada), Cell2Fire Scott and Burgman (Spain-USA), Cell2Fire Kitral (Chile).
Problems that can be addressed:
•Proposing management plans for wildfire prevention
•Designing a network of firebreaks
•Designing strategic areas for fire risk reduction
PrioriActions: Multi-action management planning tool
PrioriActions is an R package for spatial conservation planning via Mixed Integer Programming. It generates optimal (or near-optimal) prioritization and action-deployment solutions under diverse spatial and functional constraints, and works with both commercial (Gurobi, CPLEX) and open-source (CBC, Symphony) solvers.
Problems that can be addressed:
•Identifying priority areas for conservation or restoration
•Designing conservation plans Designing restoration plans
The main scientific articles during the project are (Here you can dowload a full list of articles - 62 articles):
Krsnik, Goran; Reyes-Paecke, Sonia; Reynolds, Keith M; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; González Olabarria, José Ramón; ,Assessing relativeness in the provision of urban ecosystem services: better comparison methods for improved well-being,Land,12,5,1088,2023,MDPI
Carlos Martín-Cortés, Olena Porkhun, Borja García-Pascual, Xin Zhou, Carlos Hormazabal, Mauricio Acuna, Antonio Ruano, Mari Selkimäki, Blas Mola-Yudego, Heli Kymäläinen, Gianni Picchi, José Ramón González-Olabarria. 2026. 2D-CNN for tree stem detection and segmentation using data collected with a harvester-mounted mobile laser scanner. International Journal of Forest Engineering
Carrasco-Barra, Jaime; González-Olabarria, José Ramón; Matus-Olivares, Camilo; Ulloa-Fierro, Felipe; Soto, Felipe; Palacios, David; Mahaluf, Rodrigo; de la Barra, Felipe; Espinoza, Carolina; Vilches, Matías; ,New extensions of Cell2Fire software for fire risk analysis and evaluation in Chilean forests,Environmental Modelling & Software,,,107009,2026,Elsevier.
Diaz-Balteiro, L.; Soliño, M., 2026. How useful are spatial valuations of forest ecosystem services to stakeholders?. Forest Systems (in press)
Grünig, Marc; Rammer, Werner; Baumann, Martin; Albrich, Katharina; André, Frédéric; Augustynczik, Andrey LD; Bohn, Friedrich J; Bouwman, Meike; Bugmann, Harald; Collalti, Alessio; ,Loss of competitive strength in European conifer species under climate change,Communications Earth & Environment,7,1,401,2026,Nature Publishing Group UK London
Grünig, Marc; Rammer, Werner; Senf, Cornelius; Albrich, Katharina; André, Frédéric; Augustynczik, Andrey LD; Baumann, Martin; Bohn, Friedrich J; Bouwman, Meike; Bugmann, Harald; ,Climate change will increase forest disturbances in Europe throughout the 21st century,Science,391,6789,eadx6329,2026, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Ian Mancilla-Wulff, Diego Terán, Carla Vairetti, José Ramón González-Olabarria, Andrés Weintraub, Jaime Carrasco-Barra. 2026. A scalable AI-driven approach for burned-area mapping using U-Net and Landsat imagery. Applied Soft Computing. 114070. Elsevier.
Masso-Ardila V, Paulo JA, Lloberas Lafuente D, Santos D, Marques S and Borges JG (2026) Unlocking the potential of non-timber forest products: insights from the acorn and the pine nut value chains in Portugal. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 9:1628091. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1628091
Pavani-Biju, Barbara, José G Borges, Susete Marques, Ana C Teodoro. 2026. Dasymetric Mapping for People-Centered Wildfire Risk Assessment Case Study: Northern Portugal. Land.
Prato E. Yousefpour R. 2026. Socioeconomic and Cognitive Determinants of Biochar Implementation in Tropical Land Management: A Case Study from Rural Costa Rica. Sustainability 2026, 18(5), 2662;https://doi.org/10.3390/su18052662
Salgado-Rojas, José; Moreno-Faguett, Matías; Álvarez-Miranda, Eduardo; Hermoso, Virgilio; Aquilué, Núria; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; Nahuelhual, Laura; Martínez-Harms, María José; ,From Area Targets to Efficiency Frontiers: A Multi-Objective Framework for Conservation Planning,,,,,2026,
Shahzad, F., Mehmood, K., Ahmad Anees, S., Adnan, M., Hussain, K., Razzaq Khan, W., Shah, M., Jamjareegulgarn, P., Oliveira, M., Borges, J.G. 2026. Understanding green house gases emission dynamics from forest fires in Thailand using predictive models. Global and Planetary Change,Volume 257,105236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2025.105236.
Brunet-Navarro, Pau; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; Trasobares, Antoni; ,Innovative solutions for fire resilient territories in Europe. Preliminary results from FIRE-RES project,EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts,,,EGU25-11257,2025.
Carrasco, Jaime; Gonzalez-Olabarria, José Ramón; Palacios, David; Mahaluf, Rodrigo; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; Weintraub, Andrés; ,Multicriteria firebreak planning for protecting ecological and cultural values under Wildfire risk: A case study in Catalonia,Environmental and Sustainability Indicators,,,100956,2025,Elsevier
Delgado-Rodriguez, M.; Rodriguez-Soalleiro, R.; Ribeiro Nobre, S.; Rodriguez Luiz Carlos E.; Diaz-Balteiro, L.; Tarim, S.A, 2025. Resin: Not only a secondary forest product. European Journal of Forest Research 144: 1161-1169.
Delgado- Rodriguez, M.; Diaz-Balteiro, L.; Ribeiro Nobre, S.; Estraviz Rodriguez, L.C., 2025. Optimal Rotation and Ecosystem Services: A Generalization in Forest Plantations. Forests 16, 618.
Djahangard M., Costa M., Bugmann H., Yousefpour R. 2025. Global warming levels exceeding 2°C may cause tipping point of low elevation forests in a peri-urban forest of the black forest foothills. Forest Ecosystems, 100403, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fecs.2025.100403.
Etemad S., Mohammadi L. S., Yousefpour R. 2025. Simulating the effects of climate change on the growth and management of Oriental Beech (Fagus orientalis L.) in Hyrcanian forests of Iran. European Journal f Forest Research. Eur J Forest Res 144, 963–979 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-025-01785-2
Erico, Kutchartt; GONZÁLEZ-OLABARRIA, JR; Aquilué, N; Garcia Gonzalo, J; Trasobares, A; Botequim, B; Hauglin, M; Palaiologou, P; Vassilev, V; Cardil, A; ,Servidor de combustibles a nivel paneuropeo: un portal de geo-datos para el apoyo y evaluación en incendios forestales,9º CONGRESO FORESTAL ESPAÑOL, 2025.
Matías Moreno-Faguett, J. Salgado‐Rojas, Virgilio Hermoso, M. Martínez‐Harms, Bárbara Larraín-Barrios, E. Álvarez‐Miranda. 2025. Ecosystem Risk Management: A MIP Approach to Spatial Prioritization of Multiple Management Actions. 2025. Omega. DOI:10.1016/j.omega.2025.103507Corpus ID: 284138090.
Murray, Lucas; Castillo, Tatiana; de Diego, Isaac Martin; Weber, Richard; Gonzalez-Olabarria, Jose Ramon; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; Weintraub, Andres; Carrasco-Barra, Jaime; ,Deep reinforcement learning for optimal firebreak placement in forest fire prevention,Applied Soft Computing,175,,113043,2025,Elsevier
Sergio Rodríguez-Fernández, Philip J Murphy, Keith M Reynolds, Srijana Poudel, José Ramón González-Olabarria, José G Borges. 2025. Participatory multi-criteria decision analysis to prioritize management areas that help suppress wildfires.Frontiers in Forests and Global Change.
Abate, D., S. Marques, V. Bushenkov, J. Riffo, A. Weintraub, M. Constantino, C. Lagoa and J. G. Borges. 2024 Assessment of tradeoffs between ecosystem services in large spatially constrained forest management planning problems Frontiers in Forests and Global Change 7 https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2024.1368608
Emin Zeki Baskent, José Guilherme Borges, Jan Kašpar. May 2024. An Updated Review of Spatial Forest Planning: Approaches, Techniques, Challenges, and Future Directions. Current Forestry Reports (2024) 10:299–321.
Constantino, M., M. Mesquita, S. Marques, S. Tóth and J. G. Borges 2024 Road Network, Landing Location and Routing Optimization for Forest Smallholders Landscapes (International Transactions in Operational Research).
Fernández, M.P.; Alzamora, R.M.; Chateau, F.; Elissetche, J.P.; Pérez, E. Discarded Small-Logs Recovery from Natural Forests: Improving the Value Chain. Forests 2025, 16, 1456. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/f16091456
Ferreira L., A. N. Baptista, I. Martins, S. Marques, M. Constantino and J. G. Borges 2023 Integrating Wildfire Resistance and Environmental Concerns into a more Sustainable Forest Ecosystem Management Approach Frontiers in Forests and Global Change 6 https://doi.org/10.3389/ffgc.2023.1177698
Gidey T., E. Birhane, A. Manaye, H. Kassa, T. Atsbha, N. Solomon, H. Hishe, A. Negussie, P. Madera, J.G Borges 2023 Prioritizing forest conservation strategies using a multi-attribute decision model to address concerns with the survival of the endangered dragon tree (Dracaena ombet Kotschy and Peyr.). Journal for Nature Conservation 73, 126404 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnc.2023.126404
Gidey T., E. Birhane, N. Solomon, T. Atsbha, A. Manaye, H. Hishe, Y. Gufi, M. Tesfaye, A. Negussie, T. S. Oliveira, J. H. N. Palma, P. Madera, J.G. Borges 2024 Population and conservation status of the endangered Dracaena ombet tree species in dry Afromontane forests. Global Ecology and Conservation 50: e02809, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e02809
Ezquerro, M.; Pardos, M., Diaz-Balteiro, L., 2024. The inclusion of improved forest management in strategic forest planning and its impact on timber harvests, carbon and biodiversity conservation. Science of the Total Environment, 174813
Grünig, Marc; Rammer, Werner; Albrich, Katharina; André, Frédéric; Augustynczik, Andrey LD; Bohn, Friedrich; Bouwman, Meike; Bugmann, Harald; Collalti, Alessio; Cristal, Irina; ,A harmonized database of European forest simulations under climate change,Data in Brief,54,,110384,2024,Elsevier
Krsnik, Goran; Busquets Olivé, Eduard; Piqué Nicolau, Míriam; Larrañaga, Asier; Terés, José Ángel; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; González Olabarria, José Ramón; ,Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis for Prioritising Forest Management Zones to Prevent Large Forest Fires,Available at SSRN 4733505,,,,2024,
Krsnik, Goran; Olivé, Eduard Busquets; Nicolau, Míriam Piqué; Larrañaga, Asier; Terés, José Ángel; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; Olabarria, José Ramón González; ,Spatial multi-criteria analysis for prioritising forest management zones to prevent large forest fires in Catalonia (NE Spain),Environmental Challenges,15,,100959,2024,Elsevier
Krsnik, Goran; Reynolds, Keith M; Aquilué, Núria; Mola-Yudego, Blas; Pecurul-Botines, Mireia; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; González Olabarria, José Ramón; ,Assessing the dynamics of forest ecosystem services to define forest use suitability: a case study of Pinus sylvestris in Spain,Environmental Sciences Europe,36,1,128,2024,Springer Berlin Heidelberg Berlin/Heidelberg
Krsnik, Goran; Reynolds, Keith M; Aquilué, Núria; Mola-Yudego, Blas; Pecurul-Botines, Mireia; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; Olabarria, José Ramón González; ,Assessing the dynamics of forest ecosystem services to define forest use suitability,,,,,2024,
Kutchartt, Erico; González-Olabarria, José Ramón; Aquilué, Núria; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; Trasobares, Antoni; Botequim, Brigite; Hauglin, Marius; Palaiologou, Palaiologos; Vassilev, Vassil; Cardil, Adrian; ,Pan-European fuel map server: An open-geodata portal for supporting fire risk assessment,Geomatica,76,2,100036,2024,Elsevier.
Marques, S., A. R. Rodrigues, J. A. Paulo, B. Botequim, J. G. Borges 2024 Addressing Carbon Storage in Forested Landscape Management Planning—An Optimization Approach and Application in Northwest Portugal. Forests 15: 408. https://doi.org/10.3390/f15030408
Peris-Llopis, Marina; Mola-Yudego, Blas; Berninger, Frank; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; González-Olabarria, José Ramón; ,Impact of species composition on fire-induced stand damage in Spanish forests,Scientific reports,14,1,8594,2024,Nature Publishing Group UK London
Peris-Llopis, Marina; Vastaranta, Mikko; Saarinen, Ninni; Gonzalez-Olabarria, Jose Ramon; García-Gonzalo, Jordi; Mola-Yudego, Blas; ,Post-fire vegetation dynamics and location as main drivers of fire recurrence in Mediterranean forests,Forest Ecology and Management,568,,122126,2024,Elsevier
Ribeiro Nobre, S.; Mc Dill, M.; Estraviz Rodriguez, L.C., Diaz-Balteiro, L., 2024. Reframing Forest Harvest Scheduling Models for Ecosystem Services Management. Forests 15, 2236
Vieira, F. F., M. Oliveira, M. A. Sanfins, E. Garção, H. Dasari, V. Dodla, G. C. Satyanarayana, J. Costa and J. G. Borges 2023 Statistical analysis of extreme temperatures in India in the period 1951–2020 Theoretical and Applied Climatology https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-023-04377-5
Lena Vilà-Vilardell, Alan J. Tepley, Anna Sala, Pere Casals, Sharon M. Hood. 2024. Long-term sensitivity of ponderosa pine axial resin ducts to harvesting and prescribed burning. Forest Ecology and Management, Volume 572, 122301, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2024.122301.
Ezquerro, M.; Diaz-Balteiro, L.; Pardos, M., 2023. Implications of forest management on the conservation of protected areas: a new proposal in Central Spain. Forest Ecology and Management 548: 121428
Krsnik, Goran; Reynolds, Keith M; Murphy, Philip; Paplanus, Steve; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; Olabarria, José Ramón González; ,Forest use suitability: Towards decision-making-oriented sustainable management of forest ecosystem services,Geography and Sustainability,4,4,414-427,2023,Elsevier
Nobre, S.; McDill, M.; Rodriguez, L.C.; Diaz-Balteiro, L., 2023. A general rule framework for generating alternatives for forest ecosystem management decision support systems. Forests 14, 1717.
Pais, Cristobal; Gonzalez-Olabarria, Jose Ramon; Elimbi Moudio, Pelagie; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; González, Marta C; Shen, Zuo-Jun Max; ,Global scale coupling of pyromes and fire regimes,Communications Earth & Environment,4,1,267,2023. Nature Publishing Group UK London
Rodríguez Fernández, Sergio; ,A proposal and test of a participatory multi-criteria approach with GIS-based AHP to detect high priority areas to facilitate suppression efforts against wildfires–An application in Portugal,,,,,2023,"Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa"
Ortiz-Urbina, E.; Diaz-Balteiro, L.; Pardos, M.; González-Pachón, J., 2022. Representative group decision-making in forest management: A compromise approach. Forests 13, 606.
Gonzalez-Olabarria, Jose Ramon; Carrasco, Jaime; Pais, Cristobal; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; Palacios-Meneses, David; Mahaluf-Recasens, Rodrigo; Porkhum, Olena; Weintraub, Andres; ,A fire spread simulator to support tactical management decisions for Mediterranean landscapes.,Frontiers in Forests and Global Change,6,1071484,18,2023,Frontiers
Djahangard M, Zhang H., Yousefpouyr R. 2024. Assessing Ecological Complexity and Uncertainty of Predicting Forest Ecosystem Services under Climate Change. Ecological Complexity 60 (2024) 101106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecocom.2024.101106
Baharanchi O. Gh. Hemami M. R., Yousefpour R. 2024. Spatial Conservation Prioritization of Persian Squirrel Based on Habitat Suitability and Climate-Induced Forest Mortality Risk. Forests 2024, 15(2), 290; https://doi.org/10.3390/f15020290
Ezquerro, M., et al. (2024). The inclusion of improved forest management in strategic forest planning. Science of the Total Environment.
Nobre, S. R., et al. (2024). Reframing Forest Harvest Scheduling Models for Ecosystem Services.
Hoyos-Santillan, J., et al. (2025). Soil carbon stock densities in mangrove and forested wetland ecosystems. European Biomass Production Systems: Characterization and ecosystem services implications. (2025). GCB Bioenergy. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcbb.70057
Abate, D.; Borges, J.G.; Marques, S.; Bushenkov, V. 2022. An Ecological-Economic Approach to Assess Impacts of the Expansion of Eucalyptus Plantations in Agroforest Landscapes of Northern Ethiopia. Forests 2022
, 13, 686. https:// doi.org/10.3390/f13050686
Ortiz-Urbina, E., Díaz-Balteiro, L., Pardos, M., & González-Pachón, J. (2022). Representative Group Decision-Making in Forest Management: A Compromise Approach. Forests, 13(4), 606. https://doi.org/10.3390/f13040606
Rimal, B., et al. (2022). Forest Management under Climate Change. Land, 11(3), 446. https://doi.org/10.3390/land11030446.
Trasobares, Antoni; Mola-Yudego, Blas; Aquilué, Núria; González-Olabarria, José Ramón; Garcia-Gonzalo, Jordi; García-Valdés, Raúl; De Cáceres, Miquel; ,Nationwide climate-sensitive models for stand dynamics and forest scenario simulation,Forest Ecology and Management,505,,119909,2022,Elsevier.