Smarteloskop – Schulungs- und Trainingsinfrastruktur für angepassten Waldbau (klifW024)

Whole-tree drought responses

Forest owners, forestry practitioners, and decision-makers are increasingly facing changing economic conditions and climatic challenges. For example, current environmental changes may necessitate the adaptation of classical silvicultural methods. At the same time, a broad section of society closely follows developments related to forests and often views forest management critically. All stakeholders are interested in objective information on these topics. Thus, new scientific findings about forests and their management must be conveyed in an understandable and applicable form to both forestry practice and society. Effective knowledge transfer tailored to target audiences is essential for this purpose. A recent survey of 168 forest owners from 22 European countries showed a significant interest among forest owners in new research results, but also highlighted a frequent lack of knowledge transfer from science to practice. 

Our project aims to improve the flow of information between science and practice permanently. Scientific results and insights (for example, from the yield research project 'W007') will be made more accessible for practical application through the development of the "Smarteloskop." The goal of the project is to develop and provide software for training and education in multifunctional and climate-sensitive forest management, targeting forest practitioners, students, and other forest stakeholders. While the software is designed for use on Marteloscopes, it can also be applied to other training areas (experimental plots, training areas for silvicultural guidelines) depending on available data. The software will enhance and improve the long-term knowledge transfer from science to practice.

Sub-goals of the Research Project:

1. Adapting software functions to meet user-oriented needs (forest management training, private forest consulting, education).
2. Dynamizing forest development scenarios by integrating the SILVA forest growth simulator, enabling not only multi-criteria diagnoses but also quantified and visualized scenarios.
3. Incorporating new research findings on the effects of tree species mixtures on forest growth, structure, and other ecosystem services.
4. Integrating silvicultural management measures to improve the drought resistance of trees and stands.
5. Quantifying various ecosystem services based on current and future forest structures.
6. Developing a reverse simulation routine to demonstrate how current forest development conditions result from past establishment and treatment.

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