PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Forests across Europe are at major risk from increasing temperatures as a result of climate change. They will also be affected by the related increased frequency of extreme weather events, such as droughts, high winds and heavy rainstorms, which will lead to increased flooding and the outbreak of fires. Not only will Mediterranean areas and eastern Europe will be affected but Central Europe too.
The number and intensity of continuous dry days experienced in Europe is thus expected to increase, affecting an increasingly larger area. Moreover, Mediterranean countries, where forests are considered low production, trees provide vital protection from soil erosion and degradation, as well as improving the landscape and stabilising the hydrological cycle. Forest management in Europe must urgently change, with decisions being made on the basis of the provision key goods and services.
OBJECTIVES
The first objective of the LIFE RESILIENT FORESTS was to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) for forest managers, which introduces them to the climate change adaptation processes. This system included updated management practices on the watershed scale and climate change-related issues. The support system was then demonstrated on two levels, sub-catchment and catchment, in Germany, Portugal and Spain. At each location the DSS was modified by involving the relevant stakeholders.
The project also planned to develop a complete monitoring system, including a Life Cycle Assessment of the forest management approach (following ISO 14040/44), that demonstrated the positive environmental impact of the project, as well as its socioeconomic impact. A further objective was to develop a strategy for transferring management approaches around Europe and to organise networking activities to facilitate the transfer of information on forest management and climate change initiatives. The project contributed to the Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy by 2050, as well as 2020 Energy Strategy targets and the EU’s strategy on adaption to climate change, among other EU policy areas.
RESULTS
The RESILIENT FORESTS project demonstrated (www.resilientforest.eu) a forest management approach at the watershed scale based on computer modelling. The main outcome was the computer tool C.A.F.E. (Carbon, Aqua, Fire & Eco-resilience), a Multi-Objective Decision Support System (MODSS) for forest managers that improves forests resilience to wildfires, water scarcity, environmental degradation and other effects induced by climate change.
This tool determines the optimum silvicultural activities to manage multiple products, goods and services such as biomass production, carbon sequestration, fire risk, water provisioning, climatic resilience or biodiversity, which are simultaneously quantified in time and space for a selected solution. To that end, C.A.F.E. combines eco-hydrological simulation and multi-objectives optimization with evolutionary algorithms. Finishing the execution with an iterative visualisation of the results that allows the user to understand and select the most appropriate option. Therefore, the three blocks on which this DSS is structured are: Simulation, optimisation, and visualisation.
The combination and communication of these blocks make it a multipurpose and useful tool for decision making by forest managers.
The beneficiaries carried out the demonstration activities by employing C.A.F.E. in three pilot studies carried in the municipalities of Serra (València) and Berriatua (Basque Country) in Spain and Serra da Estrela Natural Park in Portugal. Other pilot studies were also initiated during the project implementation frame time with different administrations. Some of the agreements reached with these organisations have a strategic interest since they could help to promote the continuation and sustainability of the DSS tool, such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The project also led a policy initiative launched in cooperation with other LIFE projects that was presented to different EU policy makers. The aim of this initiative was to align forest-related Mediterranean LIFE projects with EU climate and biodiversity targets in the frame of the European Forest Strategy.
Direct project impacts at environmental, climate and socioeconomic levels were not relevant since most of the project activities focused on the development and demonstration of the C.A.F.E. computer tool, within a theoretical implementation framework.
