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2092. An extension of the Area Restriction Model

Invited abstract in session MB-12: OR in Forestry I, stream OR in Agriculture and Forestry .

Monday, 10:30-12:00
Room: 13 (building: 116)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Arturo Annunziata
Information engineering, University of Florence
2. Matteo Lapucci
Department of Information Engineering, University of Florence

Abstract

The problem of harvest scheduling consists in determining the optimal planning solution selecting from different stands in a forest in a multiperiodal setting. The objective is to maximize the total revenues under some economical and regulatory constraints. This problem involves both financial and environmental considerations. In the latter the main concern is the one of the conservation of wildlife and natural habitats and it results in a restriction on the maximum contiguous area of clearcut regions in a forest. One approach to address this problem is the area restriction model (ARM) an Integer Linear Programming model in which decisions variables are binary variables prescribing the cut of a specific stand in a specific period. In particular the Path formulation of the ARM is an efficient way to manage the maximum clearcut area constraint. In this work an extension of this formulation is presented in which the planner is provided with an additional option to schedule the harvesting. The consideration of some special areas between each pairs of stands in the forest, called buffers, allows for considerable improvements in the optimal value of the objective function and makes the resulting Mixed Integer Linear Programming model more flexible. In fact the introduction of buffers often allows for feasible solutions in scenarios in which the problem would be otherwise unfeasible.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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