| Forest ecosystems are a unique complex of faunal, floral and physical structures with numerous cultural, social, economic and environmental components interacting with one another. The management of such a system often involves multiple interests and stakeholders, with different and often conflicting expectations and objectives. Today's ecosystem management requires the ability to accommodate commercial as well as noncommercial objectives, both quantitative and qualitative, and respond to social, political, economic as well as cultural changes.; Spatial and dynamic computer programs are combined with a Multi-Objective Decision Making (MODM) technique using multiple forest management objectives to provide spatio-temporal solutions for a forest ecosystem management problem on a landscape scale. Forest management objectives are related to forest stand density as the decision variable, expressed in basal area, using response functions and Compromise Programming (CP). CP is the MODM component of the modeling effort presented in this dissertation, while the USDA Forest Service Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) and ArcGIS are the temporal and spatial components, respectively. In the ModelBuilder module of ArcGIS 9.1, the decision variable output of FVS is displayed spatially and is assigned a CP achievement level that is an indicator of how well a forest stand meets the best possible solution given all management objectives.; Displaying the achievement level spatial as it changes through time provides a mechanism for solving a dynamic and spatially varied multi-objective problem at the landscape level, in order to equitably address various forest resource components and their interaction in a holistic and sustainable manner. Since the ponderosa pine forest in the Southwest is currently above its historical stand density, the study identifies numerous feasible forest management alternatives expressed in terms of changes in vegetation density with time and space.; The model effort presented in this dissertation provides valuable information for project managers in their ecosystem approach to forest management. For example, the model output can be useful to demonstrate long-term treatment effects on wildlife, forest fire, grazing and recreation and other forest ecosystem components and help forest managers analyze trade-offs and justify their management decisions. It is also a tool that can be used in the planning stages and the decision process of forest wide management actions. |
