Virtual forests for decision support and stakeholder communication

Abstract

Challenges in forest management are increasing due to climate change and its associated risks. Considering the needs and demands of various stakeholders leads to more complex decision-making. The increasing amount and quality of available geographic, forest and individual tree data, the combination of this data, and the use of forest growth simulators make it possible to support forest managers in this decision-making process. Our aim was to develop a strong visualization instrument that can be used in both forest planning and stakeholder communication. We present a solution based on a game engine, where data from multiple sources (terrain data, satellite imagery, tree data) is combined into a virtual environment. The user can move freely inside this virtual forest, look at the forest from arbitrary perspectives, and observe its development over the years under different management scenarios. We demonstrate the usefulness of this approach with a study region in Switzerland.