Author:
Pete Bettinger
Affiliation:
Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, 180 E. Green Street, Athens, Georgia, U.S.A.
Keyword(s):
Connectivity, Spatial Analysis, Land Management, Forestry, Natural Resource Management.
Abstract:
A forest management planning process can involve the development of a tactical plan that illustrates for a land manager where to go and what to do within a specific period of time, acknowledging and satisfying all recognized management constraints. More often these days, forest management constraints address the size, timing, and placement of management activities. The optimization methods used to mathematically develop a forest plan, and to integrate spatial constraints into planning efforts are often referred to as exact and heuristic approaches. This paper describes how one might model spatial connectivity of forest harvest areas as constraints under both approaches, using two different representations of connectivity, the unit restriction model and the area restriction model. The heuristic approach to the latter has until now only been described using scientific notation. Here, we provide guidance for the programming logic.