Impacts on water quality in the peatland dominated catchment due to foreseen changes in Nordic Bioeconomy Pathways.

The Nordic Bioeconomy Pathways (NBPs), conceptualized subsets of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways varying from environmentally friendly to open-market competition scenarios, can lead to plausible stressors in future for using bioresources. This study analysed the impacts of NBPs on hydrology and water quality based on two different land system management attributes: management strategy and a combination of reduced stand management and biomass removal at a catchment-scale projection. To understand the potential impacts of NBPs, the Simojoki catchment in northern Finland was chosen, as the catchment mainly covered peatland forestry. The analysis integrated a stakeholder-driven questionnaire, the Finnish Forest dynamics model, and Soil and Water Assessment Tool to build NBP scenarios, including Greenhouse gas emission pathways, for multiple management attributes to simulate flows, nutrients, and suspended solids (SS). For the catchment management strategy, an annual decrease in nutrients was observed for sustainability and business-as-usual scenarios. Reduced stand management and biomass removal also led to decreased export of nutrients and SS for the same scenarios, whereas, in other NBPs, the export of nutrients and SS increased with decreased evapotranspiration. Although the study was investigated at a local scale, based on the current political and socioeconomic situation, the approach used in this study can be outscaled to assess the use of forest and other bioresources in similar catchments.

Use of interactive data visualization in multi-objective forest planning.

Common to multi-objective forest planning situations is that they all require comparisons, searches and evaluation among decision alternatives. Through these actions, the decision maker can learn from the information presented and thus make well-justified decisions. Interactive data visualization is an evolving approach that supports learning and decision making in multidimensional decision problems and planning processes. Data visualization contributes the formation of mental image data and this process is further boosted by allowing interaction with the data. In this study, we introduce a multi-objective forest planning decision problem framework and the corresponding characteristics of data. We utilize the framework with example planning data to illustrate and evaluate the potential of 14 interactive data visualization techniques to support multi-objective forest planning decisions. Furthermore, broader utilization possibilities of these techniques to incorporate the provisioning of ecosystem services into forest management and planning are discussed.

Evaluating collaborative planning methods supporting programme-based planning in natural resource management.

Programme-based Planning of Natural Resources (PBPNR) is an evolving planning frame for solving complex land use, environmental and forest management problems within hierarchically administrated funding and decision-making schemes. PBPNR acknowledges that an effective planning process requires the combined consideration of environmental, technological, economic and socio-political factors. To reach acceptability, commitment and operability, PBPNR processes need to foster collaboration and learning. For this study, an analysis of 43 collaborative planning methods was conducted to examine their potential to be applied within PBPNR. We present the approach of screening the applicability of methods for specific needs that may occur in PBPNR. The approach is based on a list of key criteria for the phases of a collaborative planning process: problem identification, problem modelling and problem solving. The features of each method were qualitatively assessed and peer-reviewed by a team of experts. Most of the methods are able to deal with qualitative data, support processes to increase transparency in planning and capture the preferences of the participating stakeholders. They also produce understandable results for the three phases. Contrarily, many methods do not offer features to handle uncertainty, nor do they satisfactorily stimulate creativity and innovation in the planning process. The results show that the overall applicability of the reviewed methods for the three planning phases varies according to a cluster analysis basing on the capabilities of the methods. Methods such as "Planning for Real", "Open Space" and "A'WOT" seem to be particularly promising for a broad range of planning situations.