1) Develop a common approach to build forest management plans for long-term planning that integrate vegetation, wildfire, hydrology, topography and environmental parameters.2) Document this approach through hands-on sample databases that include appropriate overlays of vegetation, roads, streams, topography and land use.3) Create a user environment that promotes understanding and confidence when working with forest inventory, forest planning and the implementation of State regulations and wildfire guidelines.4) Explain database relationships, such as those between vegetation types and polygons; sampled and un-sampled polygons; partial overlaps of stream buffers within vegetation types; and biodiversity that occurs within watershed basins.
Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications of Research:The integrated approach to forest planning has the potential of providing the framework for individual companies, forestry schools and other research institutions to build on these methods and software utilities to develop new approaches to forest planning under constraints. This approach provides an ever-expanding base for new development and software applications because of the MS-windows functionality and the Microsoft ODBC database linkage architecture. These new directions in technology offer the forestry community new options for scientifically-based forest management planning.
