Sweden, forests & wind storms : developing a model to predict storm damage to forests in Kronoberg county
(2017) In Student thesis series INES NGEM01 20171Dept of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Skog täcker 56% av all markyta i Sverige, och 95% av denna skogsmark används inom skogsbruk. Detta gör att skog är en grundläggande del av national- och landsbygdsekonomin. Varje år så blir Europas skogar utsatta för stormskador, vilket har lett till analyser av vindinteraktioner med skog, och forskning inom de alternativ som finns för att minska stormskador. Att förutspå vindklimat och dess förändringar är svårt, och tidigare stormar har varierat i både vindstyrka och intensitet. Dessutom så finns det olika nivåer av stormstyrkor som upplevs på lokal nivå jämfört med regional, och på regional nivå jämfört med global, vilket yttligare komplicerar försöken att skatta stormstyrkor. Syftet med denna avhandling är då att skapa en modell som... (More)
- Skog täcker 56% av all markyta i Sverige, och 95% av denna skogsmark används inom skogsbruk. Detta gör att skog är en grundläggande del av national- och landsbygdsekonomin. Varje år så blir Europas skogar utsatta för stormskador, vilket har lett till analyser av vindinteraktioner med skog, och forskning inom de alternativ som finns för att minska stormskador. Att förutspå vindklimat och dess förändringar är svårt, och tidigare stormar har varierat i både vindstyrka och intensitet. Dessutom så finns det olika nivåer av stormstyrkor som upplevs på lokal nivå jämfört med regional, och på regional nivå jämfört med global, vilket yttligare komplicerar försöken att skatta stormstyrkor. Syftet med denna avhandling är då att skapa en modell som kan förutsäga stormskador på skog i Sverige. Modellen är utvecklad genom Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) tekniker, med data hämtad från Kronobergs län, Sverige. Detta län var valt som studieplats eftersom det är länet som har upplevt värst stormskador på skog i Sverige. Modellen genomfördes på skog från två tidsperioder, 2000 och 2013. Modellkörningarna på första tidsperioden genomfördes i syfte att försöka förutse skadorna inför stormen som drabbade Sverige i 2005, Gudrun. Validering av modelleffektivitet gjordes genom att jämföra förutsägelserna från modellen med observerade skador från stormen. Modellen kördes totalt 17 gånger på skogsdatan från 2000, med små förändringar och olika faktorer i varje körning. De slutliga förutsägelserna pekade på att de flesta skador kommer drabba de centrala och östa delarna av Kronobergs län. Skadorna som förutspåddes i de centrala delarna matchade de observerade skadorna bra, men inte i det östra delarna. Modellkörningarna 5 och 17 valdes att genomföras på skogsdatan från den andra tidsperioden, 2013. Modell nummer 5 fortsatte att förutse flest skador i de centrala och östra delarna av länet, medans modell nummer 17 förutser allvarliga skador over hela länet. De viktigaste slutsatserna är att modellerna redovisade här kan inte förutse framtida stormskador tillförlitligt. Mer forskning inom detta ämnet behöver genomföras för att få fram korrekta prognoser, vilket kan omfatta mer ingående undersökningar av faktorerna liksom införandet av fler faktorer. (Less)
- Abstract
- In Sweden forests cover 56% of the total land cover, within which 95% of these forests are used for forestry. This makes forests a fundamental part of the national and rural economy. Each year however, forest stands across Europe are damaged by wind, which has prompted several analyses on wind interactions with forests, and what alternatives there are to mitigate storm damage. Predicting wind climate and changes in storminess is difficult, and past storms have varied in both strengths and intensities. Along with this, varying levels of storminess will be felt at local levels compared to regional, and at regional compared to global, further complicating the prediction process. With this in mind, the aim of this thesis is to create a model... (More)
- In Sweden forests cover 56% of the total land cover, within which 95% of these forests are used for forestry. This makes forests a fundamental part of the national and rural economy. Each year however, forest stands across Europe are damaged by wind, which has prompted several analyses on wind interactions with forests, and what alternatives there are to mitigate storm damage. Predicting wind climate and changes in storminess is difficult, and past storms have varied in both strengths and intensities. Along with this, varying levels of storminess will be felt at local levels compared to regional, and at regional compared to global, further complicating the prediction process. With this in mind, the aim of this thesis is to create a model that can predict storm damage to forests. The model was developed using Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDA) techniques, with data from Kronoberg county, Sweden. This county was chosen as the study area as it is the county which has experienced the most storm damage to forests in Sweden. This model was implemented on forest cover from two time periods, 2000 and 2013. The runs on the first time period were carried out in order to predict the storm damage for the storm that hit in 2005, Gudrun. Validation of model effectiveness was done by comparing its predictions to the observed damage from that storm. The model was run 17 times on the forest cover from 2000, with each run having slight alterations and different factors. The final predictions suggested that most damage was to be felt in the central and eastern regions of the county. The damage predictions for the central regions matched the observed damage fairly well, but there were disagreements between the predicted and observed damage in the eastern regions. Model runs 5 and 17 were chosen to be implemented on the forest cover from the second time period, 2013. Model run 5 predicted again that most damage is to be observed in the central and eastern regions, whilst model run 17 predicts severe damage across the county. The main conclusions drawn were that the model runs do not reliably predict future storm damage. More research into this topic must be conducted in order to produce accurate predictions, which could include more in-depth studies into the factors as well as the inclusion of more factors. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8908951
- author
- Hannon Bradshaw, Louise LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- NGEM01 20171
- year
- 2017
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- publication/series
- Student thesis series INES
- report number
- 412
- language
- English
- additional info
- External supervisor: Annika Hermodsson Hyltén, Esri Sverige AB
- id
- 8908951
- date added to LUP
- 2017-05-29 09:49:44
- date last changed
- 2017-05-29 09:49:44
@misc{8908951,
abstract = {{In Sweden forests cover 56% of the total land cover, within which 95% of these forests are used for forestry. This makes forests a fundamental part of the national and rural economy. Each year however, forest stands across Europe are damaged by wind, which has prompted several analyses on wind interactions with forests, and what alternatives there are to mitigate storm damage. Predicting wind climate and changes in storminess is difficult, and past storms have varied in both strengths and intensities. Along with this, varying levels of storminess will be felt at local levels compared to regional, and at regional compared to global, further complicating the prediction process. With this in mind, the aim of this thesis is to create a model that can predict storm damage to forests. The model was developed using Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDA) techniques, with data from Kronoberg county, Sweden. This county was chosen as the study area as it is the county which has experienced the most storm damage to forests in Sweden. This model was implemented on forest cover from two time periods, 2000 and 2013. The runs on the first time period were carried out in order to predict the storm damage for the storm that hit in 2005, Gudrun. Validation of model effectiveness was done by comparing its predictions to the observed damage from that storm. The model was run 17 times on the forest cover from 2000, with each run having slight alterations and different factors. The final predictions suggested that most damage was to be felt in the central and eastern regions of the county. The damage predictions for the central regions matched the observed damage fairly well, but there were disagreements between the predicted and observed damage in the eastern regions. Model runs 5 and 17 were chosen to be implemented on the forest cover from the second time period, 2013. Model run 5 predicted again that most damage is to be observed in the central and eastern regions, whilst model run 17 predicts severe damage across the county. The main conclusions drawn were that the model runs do not reliably predict future storm damage. More research into this topic must be conducted in order to produce accurate predictions, which could include more in-depth studies into the factors as well as the inclusion of more factors.}},
author = {{Hannon Bradshaw, Louise}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{Student thesis series INES}},
title = {{Sweden, forests & wind storms : developing a model to predict storm damage to forests in Kronoberg county}},
year = {{2017}},
}