A Buffered Area Restriction Model (BARM) for optimisation of spatially constrained forest harvest scheduling

Sandro Sacchelli, Arturo Annunziata and Matteo Lapucci

Forest Policy and Economics, 2025, vol. 177, issue C

Abstract: The paper presents a modified version of Path Formulation for an Area Restriction Model (ARM). The operational research tool automatically constructs suitable buffers among forest unit boundaries to optimise harvesting scheduling in case of management constraints (i.e. maximum adjacent harvested area, green-up age, minimum level of net present value – NPV – to be obtained in different periods etc.). The objective function of the Buffered Area Restriction Model (BARM) is the maximisation of NPV. Economic analysis is developed through an open-source Geographic Information System Decision Support, r.green.biomassfor. The model is tested in a hypothetical forest with scenarios from 30 to 150 forest units. Outputs demonstrate improved optimisation with respect to basic formulation of ARM as well as other models presented in literature. Results show that – in the case study – NPV can reach an improvement of almost 25 % (30 % in a Toy scenario) compared to the base ARM formulation. Highly acceptable errors and resolution times are provided by BARM also in the perspectives of both scientific integration and practical applications. Strengths, weaknesses and potential future improvements of the model are presented.

Keywords: Forest optimisation; Spatial model; Adjacency constraints; Buffer strips; Green-up period; Economic analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389934125001157
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:forpol:v:177:y:2025:i:c:s1389934125001157

DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2025.103536

Access Statistics for this article

Forest Policy and Economics is currently edited by M. Krott

More articles in Forest Policy and Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().