Coupling a tree growth model with storm damage modeling - Conceptual approach and results of scenario simulations

Axel Tim Albrecht (1) , Mathieu Fortin (2) , Ulrich Kohnle (1) , Francois Ningre (2)

1 Forest Research Institute Baden-Württemberg - Forstliche Versuchs- und Forschungsanstalt Baden-Württemberg
2 LERFoB - Laboratoire d'Etudes des Ressources Forêt-Bois

The purpose of this study was to develop, test and evaluate a software prototype capable of modeling forest growth in consideration of winter storm disturbance and to simulate storm damage in forests under different forest management regimes. The results of a test application showed that simulated storm damage was more strongly influenced by the input data (e.g. tree species and tree height) than by the different forest management regimes. However, early, intense thinnings as well as reducing target diameters by 10% led to reduced storm damage, with decreases as large as 50% of the damage in certain forest stands. The coupled modeling framework was able to simulate interactions between forest growth, storm damage and forest management regimes. Further testing of the prototype appears necessary to investigate a wider range of tree species, soil and site conditions. Also, the use of computational system resources needs improvement.

Mots clés: Windthrow; Storm damage; Forest growth; Statistical modeling; Forest management; Scenario simulation; Risk avoidance; Risk reduction; Disturbance modeling

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Axel Tim Albrecht, Mathieu Fortin, Ulrich Kohnle, Francois Ningre. Coupling a tree growth model with storm damage modeling - Conceptual approach and results of scenario simulations. Environmental Modelling and Software, 2015, 69, pp.63-76. ⟨10.1016/j.envsoft.2015.03.004⟩. ⟨hal-01195119⟩