International Research Fellowship Program: Developing a Decision System to Aid Multipurpose Forest Management in Chile

[6018 . 38]国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够到国外进行9至24个月的研究。该计划的奖励为联合研究提供了机会，并利用独特或互补的设施、专业知识和国外的实验条件。该奖项将支持Sandor F. Toth博士与智利圣地亚哥天主教大学的Guillermo H. Donoso博士进行为期12个月的研究。这项研究的目的是阐明为多种相互冲突的用途管理智利原生森林的权衡和生产可能性。这是通过为智利南部的一个试点研究地点建立一个多标准决策支持系统来完成的。该决策系统基于一个空间显式的收获调度模型，该模型被表述为一个多目标整数规划。这项研究将通过寻找对木材和一系列非木材目标都有效的采伐时间表，为决策者提供具体的、定量的权衡资料。本研究考虑的非用材林效益包括固碳、流域和野生动物栖息地保护。拟议的决策系统将提供的信息将有助于智利的自然资源专业人员在管理原生森林方面作出更好的决定和更好的政策。公共和私营林业利益攸关方也将受益于一种要求他们以高度结构化的方式参与规划进程、互动和分析各种管理备选方案的方法。前提是，这一过程使他们能够更深入地了解规划问题，从而在选择最佳的折衷森林管理备选方案时做出更明智的决定。

0601838TothThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twelve-month research fellowship by Dr. Sandor F. Toth to work with Dr. Guillermo H. Donoso at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, in Santiago, Chile.The goal of this research is to shed light on the tradeoffs and production possibilities of managing Chile's native forests for multiple, conflicting uses. This is done by building a multi-criteria decision support system for a pilot study site in Southern Chile. The decision system is based on a spatially explicit harvest scheduling model that is formulated as a multi-objective integer program. The study will provide tangible, quantitative tradeoff information for decision makers by finding harvest schedules that are efficient with respect to both timber and a range of non-timber objectives. The non-timber forest benefits considered in this research include carbon sequestration, watershed and wildlife habitat preservation. The information that the proposed decision system would provide will help natural resource professionals in Chile make better decisions and better policies in regard to the management of native forests. Public and private forestry stakeholders will also benefit from an approach that requires them to participate in the planning process, interact, and analyze a wide range of management alternatives in a highly structured fashion. The premise is that this process allows them to gain more insight into the planning problem and, thus to make more informed decisions when selecting the best compromise forest management alternatives.