Search results for " Forest"

Comparison of feature importance measures as explanations for classification models

2021

AbstractExplainable artificial intelligence is an emerging research direction helping the user or developer of machine learning models understand why models behave the way they do. The most popular explanation technique is feature importance. However, there are several different approaches how feature importances are being measured, most notably global and local. In this study we compare different feature importance measures using both linear (logistic regression with L1 penalization) and non-linear (random forest) methods and local interpretable model-agnostic explanations on top of them. These methods are applied to two datasets from the medical domain, the openly available breast cancer …

Biomass Assessment of Agricultural Crops Using Multi-temporal Dual-Polarimetric TerraSAR-X Data

2019

The biomass of three agricultural crops, winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), and canola (Brassica napus L.), was studied using multi-temporal dual-polarimetric TerraSAR-X data. The radar backscattering coefficient sigma nought of the two polarization channels HH and VV was extracted from the satellite images. Subsequently, combinations of HH and VV polarizations were calculated (e.g. HH/VV, HH + VV, HH × VV) to establish relationships between SAR data and the fresh and dry biomass of each crop type using multiple stepwise regression. Additionally, the semi-empirical water cloud model (WCM) was used to account for the effect of crop biomass on radar backscatter …

The Italian endemic forest plants: an annotated inventory and synthesis of knowledge

2023

Background and aims – Forests are among the most threatened ecosystems worldwide, and endemic plants are often a vulnerable component of the flora of a given territory. So far, however, understory forest endemics of southern Europe have received little attention and are poorly known for several aspects. Material and methods – We developed the first list of native vascular plants that are restricted to Italian forests. Available information on taxonomy, regional distribution, ecology, biology, functional traits, and conservation status was collected for each taxon, allowing to identify major knowledge gaps and calculate baseline statistics. Key results – The list includes 134 taxa, most of w…

Future supply of boreal forest ecosystem services is driven by management rather than by climate change

2022

Forests provide a wide variety of ecosystem services (ES) to society. The boreal biome is experiencing the highest rates of warming on the planet and increasing demand for forest products. To foresee how to maximize the adaptation of boreal forests to future warmer conditions and growing demands of forest products, we need a better understanding of the relative importance of forest management and climate change on the supply of ecosystem services. Here, using Finland as a boreal forest case study, we assessed the potential supply of a wide range of ES (timber, bilberry, cowberry, mushrooms, carbon storage, scenic beauty, species habitat availability and deadwood) given seven management regi…

Estudio de la variabilidad genética de repoblaciones de Quercus ilex L. subsp. ballota (Desf.) Samp. in Bol. en Andalucìa

2005

An adequate management of the reproductive material for reforestation activities is fundamental in the conservation of forest genetic resources. In the present work the levels of genetic diversity and differentiation between artificial stands of Quercus ilex and the adjacent natural stands are assessed with nuclear microsatellites. Also, it was possible to analyse the natural population used as seed source for one of the reforestations studied. The levels of genetic differentiation between natural and artificial stands and the decrease of genetic diversity from the seed origin population to the reforestation are discussed in relation to the transference of seed among provenance regions and …

ANDREA GIACOBBE, UN SELVICOLTORE CHE MERITA DI USCIRE DALL'OBLIO

2021

Andrea Giacobbe, a forester who deserves to get out from oblivion. The scientific production of Andrea Giacobbe, a Sicilian forester who worked in central and northern Italy in the last century, has been revisited. The aim is to highlights how his contribution to botany, forest ecology and forestry has been largely overlooked. He was the protagonist of a lively debate with the greatest for est scientists of his time, he produced 64 papers and books, but above all he proposed many inno vative reforestation techniques that today should be rediscovered and applied.

A methodological approach exploiting modern techniques for forest road network planning

2016

A well-developed road network allows all forest activities, including wood harvesting, firefighting and recreational activities. However, forest road construction and maintenance involve economic and environmental costs. For these reasons, forest road network planning is a fundamental phase of forest management, maximising the benefits and reducing costs and impacts. Thanks to modern technologies in data collection both for terrestrial and forest characteristics, new methods and tools have been developed to improve and facilitate road planning. The aim of this study was the development of a Decision Support System for helping managers during forest road network planning, exploiting Multi-Cr…

Forest Sharing® as an Innovative Facility for Sustainable Forest Management of Fragmented Forest Properties: First Results of Its Implementation

2023

The forestry sector in Italy and throughout Europe is going through a critical period due to ongoing natural and anthropological processes, such as climate change and the abandonment of rural areas. These processes lead to a constant fragmentation of properties in small forest parcels, with direct impacts on management capacity. In this framework, new sustainable forest management methods are being tested and are shown to be good practices to oppose the decline of forest ecosystems. Their innovative aspects concern the introduction of a form of shared and circular economy, where management is built on the process, rather than on the product. Their technical activities are based on precision…

Il cipresso in sicilia: distribuzione regionale e prospettive future

2007

Institutions et mécanismes de gouvernance des transactions :

2013

Institutions and governance mechanisms for transactions : the case of logging in Cameroon Following Masahiko Aoki (2010), we postulate that transactions between actors integrate not only an economic dimension but also a social dimension. This means that transactions’ equilibrium cannot be analyzed only in economic terms. They also include relational aspects that we define as social aspects. Through the study of a local forestry exploitation in Cameroon compared with a communal forestry exploitation in France, we highlight two crucial factors : the dissociation of the functions of mayor and chief of village and the coexistence of payments in cash and payments in nature. The first factor unde…