A team led by the UBC Faculty of Forestry has upgraded a mathematical modelling tool that could ultimately improve future forest management decisions.
PrognosisBC is now FVS-BC
With funding from the British Columbia Forest Carbon Initiative, the team, who includes members of the provincial government and ESSA Technologies, has updated the British Columbia components of the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) growth and yield modelling system. Foresters use tools like FVS to gain a greater understanding of how forest vegetation changes in response to silviculture and natural disturbances such as wildfire.
Renamed FVS-BC to reflect better its integration with the model used by the United States Forest Service, the tool can not only simulate the impacts of silvicultural procedures on tree and stand growth but can also keep track of carbon stocks. Model outputs can also be linked to climate scenarios or economic analysis modules, allowing for work on climate change or economic scenario forecasts.
“With the rapid pace of changing climatic conditions and their impact on forest stands, it is more important than ever that forest decision-makers have all tools at their disposal for stand-level and landscape-level planning well into the future,” says UBC Faculty of Forestry associate professor Bianca Eskelson. “We see the updated FVS-BC model as one that will be in high demand now and for years to come.”
UBC Multi-Day Workshop Scheduled
The updated model and interface will be presented at a multi-day workshop happening between February and April. Registrants can sign up at this link.
FVS-BC Available Through SourceForge
With these changes, the updated FVS-BC model is now an open-source resource, independent of all commercial software. Anyone interested in trying FVS-BC can find it on the SourceForge repository at https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-fvs/.
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