Decision support system for the sustainable forest management

This paper discusses the methodological component of a decision support system being developed for the sustainable forest management at the forest management unit level. A geographic information system-based multi-criteria evaluation technique for measuring sustainability of forest management is under development. It integrates and utilises spatial and temporal data on diverse ecological, economic and social variables, while handling data and decision-rule uncertainty. A decision support approach using the concept of aspiration-based utility functions is proposed for formulating forest land use strategies to improve sustainability. It combines the use of linear programming and geographic information systems. As such, the paper attempts to bridge the gap between considerable research work done on developing the framework for measuring sustainability of forest management and a lack of similar efforts in monitoring and using these indicators as a formal part of the planning system. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.