Consideration of strong winds, their directional distribution and snow loading in wind risk assessment related to landscape level forest planning

▶ Directional distribution of strong winds shape the optimal forest landscape structure markedly. ▶ Consideration of snow loading in the calculation of critical wind speeds increased the mean risk clearly and produced slightly more aggregated landscape structures in terms of tree height. ▶ Consideration of support that neighbouring trees provide to each other had minor effects on wind damage. ▶ Consideration of risk of wind induced damages in forest planning calculations clearly affect the selected cutting strategies and impacts the spatial layout of the landscape.