International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B7. Istanbul 2004
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ligure 4. Hierarchical ecosystem classification of the Liukuei
Experimental Forest
3.3 Establishment of a forestland classification DSS and its
application on Taiwania site selection
A forestland classification DSS was established by integrating.
ecosystem classification with the EMDS framework. The
system was then used for Taiwania site selection. Figure 3 is the
output of site selection for Taiwania. If the result of Taiwania
site selection is superimposed on and compared with actual
Taiwania plantations derived from the forest type map. it can be
seen that most northern areas in the study area match quite well.
but the southwestern areas show much great differences. For
example. more suitable areas with potential for Taïwania have
no actual distribution of this species. From this case study. it is
obvious that forest managers can easily apply this established
forestland classification DSS for Taiwania site selection.
Although the established system performs well, there are still
some problems with respect to the assignment of membership
and the analysis unit. For example. the determination of the
truth value needs further research and the result using different
analvsis units will differ. On the other hand. more suitable areas
with potential for Taiwania have no actual distribution of this
species. the reason may be that the southeastern area is
connected to a natural reserve. and there is no forest road access.
É
SEE potential area
[777m
[E Actual area (pure stand)
Actual area (mixed stand)
S 0 3 10 I 5km
Figure 5. Comparison between potential area and actual area for
Taiwania site selection
4 CONCLUSIONS
Forestland classification using an ecosystem approach is a
prerequisite process for ecosystem management. This study
applied DTM. GIS. and multivariate statistical analysis to
classify forestland of the Liukuei Experimental Forest into
different ecosystems and to form a hierarchical. ecosystem
classification system. Then the hierarchical ecosystem
classification was integrated into the EMDS to become a
forestland classification DSS which wis used lor a
demonstration of Taiwania site selection. The conclusions are
as follows. (1) The ecosystem delineation using D'TM 1s a fast,
easy. feasible. and automatic approach. (2) The developed
hierarchical ecosystem classification using GIS and multivariate
statistical analysis is a satisfactory scheme because the
developed scheme coincides with the terrain. characteristics
along a continuum. (3) The established DSS can effectively and
feasibly analyze forestland classification under different spatial
scales. and easily perform site selection for Taiwania.
Conclusions obtained from this study imply that techniques
such as DTM. GIS, and DSS are uscful for forest managers in
the reasonable planning of forestland classification and
management practice. Also. it is essential to understand the
relationship between ecosystem hierarchies and management
hierarchies because if management hierarchies and ecosystem
hierarchies are. well correlated. management strategies will
work better and form a more-consistent and efficient
management process. Therefore, further challenge is that
forestland ecosystem classification approaches obtained from
the Experimental Forest will be extended to island-wide
forestland classification in Taiwan. in addition to integrate
ecosystem hierarchies and management hierarchies.
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Bulger D. Hunt H.. 1991. The forest management decision
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Chen LC. Huang GM. Lin JS. Chiou CR.. 1997. Growing stock
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