ProgettoBosco

General System description

System name: ProgettoBosco Assestamento

Acronym: PB Assestamento

Brief overview

ProgettoBosco is a Data-Driven Decision Support Systems, aimed at optimising the data collection on forest and forest management of Italy. With ProgettoBosco a unique, participated and shared information system effective for all forest typologies existing in Italy was accomplished. According to Data-Driven Decision Support Systems definition (Power 2008), in ProgettoBosco data can be easily managed, queried, summarized, ad hoc filtered and retrieved also through the help of specific alerts and triggers and a very user-friendly interface. Specific data displays can be also created within report design, generation and storage. A very good integration with MS Excel software, one of the broader software used by foresters to analyze field data, is also ensured

Scope of the system

Italian forests are characterized by a wide heterogeneity range of planning systems and rules, which are rather unfeasible to be compared in time and space under a unique perspective, often also within the same administrative Region. Within this context and according to Data-Driven Decision Support Systems definition (Power 2008) “ProgettoBosco” aims at optimising the collection of all data concerning with Italian forests and forest management, by implementing a nationally standardized method and tool for monitoring and supporting forest planning and forest policy choices from a local to a national scale. This means: i) to attain the comparison in time and space of all the collected information; ii) to facilitate data reading also at higher scales; iii) to make much easier the control of forest plans; iv) to standardise on field training education of experts by improving their competences; v) to facilitate the control on the application of the plan’s disposals and rules; vi) to easily keep update forest management plan database.

For this reason, for ProgettoBosco was a priority: - the definition of a minimum and common information level for describing forest areas under a unique technical and management perspective; - the implementation of an information system in order to facilitate the comparison in space and time of basic forest management data; - to provide public administrators and policy makers with a fast and efficient tool to cope with regional, national or international rules (e.g. EU-financing, agreements on biodiversity, sustainability, carbon stock).

System origin

ProgettoBosco is a freeware developed by CRA - Agricultural Research Council (Italy).

The project started up in late-eighties from the experience driven with Emilia Romagna and Umbria Regions where a first forest planning information system was implemented and tested at a local scale. Later on, thanks to the funds of the Italian Agricultural and Forestry Department of the Government Policy Ministry through the national research project named Ri.Selv.Italia, (2001-2007), an homogeneous forest planning system and a management method at national level was implemented. By Ri.Selv.Italia Project, ProgettoBosco has been further implemented and consists nowadays of 8 Regions adopting these experimental management plans, plus 7 more participating so as to make methods and tools compatible with their territorial and administrative peculiarity. Thus, the project involved more than 150 scientists and experts (among researchers, forest managers, technicians belonging to Regional Forest Services), joined in an interdisciplinary team consisting of forest scientists, agronomists, economists, architects, landscape-fauna and phyto-sociology experts, engineers.

Specific tests were set-up to adapt ProgettoBosco's methods and tools to university and professional formation.

At the moment, ProgettoBosco is used as a research tool, in teaching, as well as for practical forest planning purposes.

Support for specific issues

ProgettoBosco supports technicians to produce forest management plans. ProgettoBosco provides a large number of control variables (manipulation possibilities) divided into two main groups of data: one related to management and environmental features of forest compartment and the other one to specific bioecological management information referred to the forest stand (forest stand, tree plantations, shrubs and pasture.

Support for specific thematic areas of a problem type

• Forest planning
• Silvicultural
• Certification
• Conservation
• Development choices / land use zoning
• Policy/intervention alternatives

Data and data models

Typical spatial extent of application

User defined (from single ownership forest to regional level)

Forest data input

Location, site, and stand data (such as lithology, aspect, slope, disturbances, land use, vegetation types, dominating vegetation cover, cover gaps, secondary vegetation cover, agro-forest management disturbances, forest practices, forest engineering practices, bushes cover, grasses cover, dead materials cover, dendrometric data). GIS information: stand polygons (vectorial with topological information)

Volume tables are required; in ProgettoBosco are already avalaible 547 national and local volume tables

Type of information input from user (via GUI)

All the forest data are provided by users filling predefined forms

Models

Forest models

-

Social models

-

Decision Support

Definition of management interventions

The planner defines when and how to intervene in the forest: time of harvest, plantations, thinnings, reconversions...

Typical temporal scale of application

Silvicultural measures taken at stand level are typically defined for a planning period of 10 years.

Types of decisions supported

• planning decisions (management and sylvicultural actions)
• management plans production (compartment description processing, working circle, dendrometric data processing, felling plan)

According to Data-Driven Decision Support Systems definition (Power 2008), in ProgettoBosco data can be easily managed, queried, summarized, ad hoc filtered and retrieved also through the help of specific alerts and triggers and a very user-friendly interface. Specific data displays can be also created within report design, generation and storage. A very good integration with MS Excel software, one of the broader software used by foresters to analyze field data, is also ensured

Decision-making processes and models

Within ProgettoBosco the data are processed by “trial and error”. By this, the user can test several management scenarios and then choose the one which looks to be the best. The decision making process is an iterative process. First, the user analyses the necessary input to make a decision. Then building and interpretation of the simulation outputs is left up to the user. After making the decision, the user analyses its feasibility by comparing it to the present situation and to his targets. The decisions taken are recorded .

Output

Types of outputs

The outputs are shown as texts, tables, charts and maps

Spatial analysis capabilities

• facilitates links to GIS (stand polygons)
• provides standard data import/export formats

Abilities to address interdisciplinary, multi-scaled, and political issues

Evaluate interactions between different basic information types (biophysical, economic, social). Produce coordinated results for decision makers operating at different spatial scales facilitate social negotiation and learning

System

System requirements

• Operating Systems: MS-XP Professional
• Other software needed: MS Access 2000, ESRI-ARC-GIS 9.x
• Development status: ProgettoBosco 2010 (first release ProgettoBosco 1991)

Architecture and major DSS components

ProgettoBosco is built within MS Access 2000 using Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA).

We are now implementing an open source web-gis release

Usage

Regional Government Officials, forest planners, technical personnel, forest decision makers, scientific community, forestry students.

Computational limitations

MS Access 2000 limits

User interface

An user friendly interface was developed so that even computer no-experts can be comfortable in the use of the software. The forms structure looks like a forest management plans or similar documents.

Documentation and support

Three different manuals: field manual, software manual, integration between ProgettoBosco and ARC-GIS 9.x manual User support level: by e-mail and phone

Installation

• Prerequisite knowledge: how to produce a forest managment plan; basic knowledge of MS Access 2000
• Cost: free of charge
• Demo: -

References

Cited references

Power, D. J. 2008. Understanding Data-Driven Decision Support Systems. Information Systems Management 25 (2): 149 – 154

External resources

• Agnoloni, S., Bianchi, M., Bianchetto, E., Cantiani, P., De Meo, I., Dibari, C. & Ferretti F., 2009. I piani forestali territoriali di indirizzo: una proposta metodologica. Forest@ 1: 140-147.
• Bianchi M., Cantiani P., Ferretti F. (2006) (a). Criteri per la raccolta e organizzazione dei dati e per l’informatizzazione delle procedure per la pianificazione e gestione forestale. Annali C.R.A. – ISSEL. Vol 32 Numero Speciale Progettobosco, 2001: 9-24.
• Bianchi M., Cantiani P., Ferretti F. (2006) (b). Metodo per la raccolta e organizzazione dei dati e per l’informatizzazione delle procedure per la pianificazione e gestione forestale. Annali C.R.A. – ISSEL. Vol 32 Numero Speciale Progettobosco, 2001: 25-95.
• Ferretti F. (2007). Ri.Selv.Italia, Sottoprogetto 4.2 Sistema informativo geografico per la gestione forestale. Relazione Finale.