Forest Management Decision Support Systems (FORSYS)

Forests serve a multitude of purposes and address many different, often conflicting, goals to satisfy the needs of forest owners, forest industry, and society at large. This poses considerable challenges to forest managers. The need for enhanced forest decision support systems (DSSs) is evident in several EU documents related to the future role of European forests. Forest DSSs allow the forest manager to use advanced decision support tools, such as expert and knowledge based systems, multi-criteria techniques as well as communication and visualization tools. European experience with developing and applying forest DSSs for forest management provides a solid foundation for technological innovation and collaboration between research partners. The Action will define a European-wide framework with core processes and information standards for decision making in a sustainable multifunctional forest management environment. Furthermore, it will define requirements for DSS implementation and provide a consistent European-wide quality reference for development of decision systems enhancing sustainable forest management.