Adapting forest health assessments to changing perspectives on threats—a case example from Sweden

Abstract

A revised Swedish forest health assessment system is presented. The assessment system is composed of several interacting components which target information needs for strategic and operational decision making and accommodate a continuously expanding knowledge base. The main motivation for separating information for strategic and operational decision making is that major damage outbreaks are often scattered throughout the landscape. Generally, large-scale inventories (such as national forest inventories) cannot provide adequate information for mitigation measures. In addition to broad monitoring programs that provide time-series information on known damaging agents and their effects, there is also a need for local and regional inventories adapted to specific damage events. While information for decision making is the major focus of the health assessment system, the system also contributes to expanding the knowledge base of forest conditions. For example, the integrated monitoring programs provide a better understanding of ecological processes linked to forest health. The new health assessment system should be able to respond to the need for quick and reliable information and thus will be an important part of the future monitoring of Swedish forests.

Keywords

Forest health; Monitoring; Forest damage; Resin-top disease; Spruce bark beetle

Published in

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
2012, volume: 184, number: 4, pages: 2453-2464

SLU Authors

• Wulff, Sören

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Lindelöw, Åke

  • Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Lundin, Lars

  • Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Hansson, Per

  • Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Axelsson, Anna-Lena

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Barklund, Pia

  • Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Ståhl, Göran

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Associated SLU-program

Forest
Nature experiences and health

UKÄ Subject classification

Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use
Forest Science

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-011-2130-7

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/36459