ForSAFE-an integrated process-oriented forest model for long-term sustainability assessments

Planning management activities for a long-term sustainable forestry requires predictive tools designed for this kind of management. Many tools available today are either designed for planning periods that are too short to consider long-term sustainability, omit important parts of the forest ecosystem or are not capable of considering environmental changes. A long-term potential growth-limiting factor is the supply of available base cations as was demonstrated in an earlier study for a research area in southern Sweden. This paper presents the ForSAFE model, a computer implemented model system where four robust and well evaluated stand-alone models are combined to a dynamic model that considers vegetation and soil as well as the links between them. The system dynamics approach with causal loop diagrams (CLD) and feedback loop analysis (FLA) is presented as a useful tool for conceptualizing and constructing ecosystem models.