Teresa López-Andújar Fustel

The main objective that we pursue in my PhD project is to develop new forest planning models to reduce the risk of damage by major disturbances in Sweden. Climate change is already influencing the impact that many natural disturbances have on the forest nowadays by, for example, inducing changes in growing conditions. So far we have been looking at windstorms and bark beetle outbreaks to try to understand how the structure of the forest at different scales is able to make the forest predisposed to experience damages. With this knowledge, we have used forest planning as an instrument to develop new models that will help create the right conditions in the forest to reduce the risk of damage in the mid and long term. The models that we develop are intended to provide forest owners and forest managers with new decision support tools when deciding how to manage their forests. These models are being implemented in the Heureka system which is a system used internationally and by many forest companies in Sweden.