WP3 articulates knowledge on forest resources economics and management science to develop innovative decision-making approaches (e.g., landscape-level spatial optimization, multiple criteria methods, stochastic techniques and hierarchical methods) to address the provision of ecosystem services in forest ecosystem management planning.
WP3 will work in close cooperation with WP2 and will build from the expertise and experience of beneficiaries and partners in the DecisionES network, namely in research and outreach in spatial optimization, integration of risk and uncertainty in planning, multi criteria methods and participatory planning and hierarchical planning methods. The consolidation of this second DecisionES interdisciplinary knowledge pillar will be influential to develop new models for stakeholder-based management to fulfil all functions of the forest, to develop new concepts for economic evaluation of ecosystem services, to develop advanced sustainable forestry business models, to analyse changes in forest ownership and management regimes and to improve the understanding of trade-offs between policies. In order for models and methods to be used effectively, they must be programmed, integrated and used within computer-based decision systems.
WP 3 addresses this knowledge gap too by including a task that targets the development of innovative computer based tools to facilitate the analysis of trade-offs between market products and ecosystem service provision (e.g. wildfire protection, water provision and biodiversity conservation) at operational, tactical, and strategic planning levels to support decision making process.