Long-term sustainability analysis of fiber supply in Georgia

Cieszewski C.J., Zasada M., Borders B.E., Clutter M.L., Daniels R.F., Elle R.I.

ABSTRACT: Described is a general scope of a new cooperative study at the School of Forest Resources, University of Georgia, in analysis of long-term fiber supply in Georgia. The new study is a methodology research into effective techniques for annual forest inventory using Landsat TM imagery, GPS, and GIS, which intends to develop a methodology for realistic fiber supply assessment on a short and long term basis. The developed methodology will be used to reassess sustainability of Georgia's forest resources on an annual basis by rerunning the long-term simulations with annually updated forest inventory data. The system is similar to the approach adapted by British Columbia for determination of annual allowable cut in national forests, whereby the levels of allowable cuts every year are determined by long-term sustainability analyses based on 200-year simulations of the existing inventory under the assumed levels of utilization. At the current state the analysis is based on basic inventory summaries founded on the databases provided by the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory Analysis unit. However, even this simplified preliminary approach to the analysis is very comprehensive.

KEYWORDS: Long-term sustainable forest management, maximum allowable cut, intensive forest management

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