20 years after the storm Gudrun

January 8-9 of 2005, the storm Gudrun devastated large areas of forests in southern Sweden, with important repercussions for forest management. The amount of scientific work created as a consequence of storm Gudrun is not only meritorious of examination, but also provides crucial insights into how the storm directly or indirectly has led forest (and related) sciences towards its current research avenues.

Nearly two decades of research make such a synthesis possible and the soon-to-come 20-year anniversary makes a synthesis deserving of attention. 

In this project funded by Future Forests seed money, Luis Andrés Guillén Alm, postdoc at Planning and Policy Group, SSFRC, will co-ordinate and write a grant proposal for a multidisciplinary synthesis study about the effects that the 2005 winter storm Gudrun has had on forest sciences and its contributions to practices.

The ultimate goal is that this proposal will lead to a synthesis study, but also that information can be shared with the public in a popular science form.

We aim to have a multidisciplinary approach to this synthesis. The overarching effects of the storm, e.g. on ecological, social, management and operational aspects of forestry, call for a multidisciplinary approach. Scholars from diverse disciplines (e.g. silviculture, planning, policy, ecology, pathology, meteorology would be involved in the project), representing several SLU campuses, and other universities and external partners.

In early fall we will carry out a short literature review to map out expert and interested scholars knowledgeable and possibly interested in participating on the project. This will lead to meetings with scholars to understand possible contributions. We aim to submit proposals by the end of 2024, and have published a popular science article by January 20, 2025.