The aim of the presented study is to evaluate comparatively the quantity and the quality of wood production as well as the economic risks involved for several versions of forestry systems based on black locust short rotation coppice, in the southern part of Romania. The study provides comparative information about the investment opportunities in several cases of black locust coppice plantations under different site conditions and geographic areas. The information within this study may be very useful for government stakeholders and investors to support decision making for better regulation in this sector and to invest in these types of plantations. It can also create useful instruments for calculating public subsidies destined for afforestation of the agricultural land.

Key words: black locust, investments, coppice

In addition to stand-wise inventory, Poland carries out continuous national forest inventory (NFI) program based on sample plot measurements and statistical methods. The method is highly comparable with traditional inventory methods. Currently, the NFI has become the primary information source for national statistics on forests in Poland. This review describes methodology and current results of the NFI in Poland.

Key words: national forest inventory, growing stock volume estimation, forests in Poland

The urban forest landscape in Europe differs depending on the past history of sociopolitical cultures. Latvia presents a special case, as perceptions of urban green spaces changed from a period of Germanic dominance, to a developed European Republic, later subdued in the Soviet era, and now to a European country in transition. The human footprint has been relatively moderate, and there is little alienation between people and natural values. In Riga there are 15 forest tracts, some connected with rural forests and others are isolated remnants of ancient or planted forests. These forest stands are mostly dominated by Scots pine Pinus sylvestris L. on poor dry soils, with a characteristic feather-moss layer. While recognition of the importance of urban forest ecosystems in resilience of the city is growing, recreational pressure and demands for aesthetical, novel, man-made landscapes are significant. Governance in Latvia almost completely overlooks the complexity of urban forest management and there have been no attempts at integration of ecological, social, aesthetic and recreational functions in all-encompassing landscape planning of Riga forests with all relevant stakeholders participating. As a result, the ‘naturalness’ of the forests has been largely shaped by recreation loads. Knowledge is needed on the ecological and recreational functions of these forests, in order to develop specific management plans. We firstly used species and plant functional groups to derive indicators to determine extent of ecological degradation of the forests. Secondly, we applied the psychophysical method to determine public preferences for forest landscape models on images that were created with the aim to portray different management practices (e.g. retention of deadwood, cutting of understorey, and recreational infrastructure). We examined four types of forest landscapes and found a significant difference both in public preferences between them and in choices of respondent groups for the most preferable landscape for recreation.

Key words: recreation, forest management, landscape preference

The objective of this study was to explore the explanatory capacity of airborne laser scanning (ALS) metrics with regard to tree size inequality properties from the forest. With this purpose, we selected the analysis of the Lorenz curve as a method for determining complexity in forest structure. The Lorenz curve is a representation of the relations of relative dominance among trees in the forest. Therefore, it presents a detailed description of the balance between overstory and understory, providing with valuable information on the degree of inequality among tree sizes in the forest. The methodology chosen was a canonical correlation analysis (CCA) of ALS metrics against regular quantiles along the Lorenz curve. Results demonstrated that most explanatory power can be yielded from indices of concentration of return heights, such as the L-coefficient of variation (i.e., Gini coefficient). This is highly relevant as it demonstrates the Lorenz curves from tree sizes and return heights to be closely related. Moreover, the study of separate canonical components allowed us to observe the correlation of certain metrics with each segment of the curve, detailing the effects that can be observed in ALS surveys in relation with tree stocking balance relations in multilayered forests. The first CCA component was more related to the dominant canopy, and therefore it influences the ALS surveys in a greater extent. This dominant layer is mainly described by canopy cover metrics, and thus it depends mainly on the forest stand relative density. The second CCA component was more related to the development of the understory, which influences the total amount of returns observed and the skewness of their heights. Future research studying the Lorenz curve from ALS surveys could provide forest inventories with important relations on forest structural characteristics.

Key words: airborne laser scanning, forest inventory, tree size inequality, Lorenz curve, canonical correlation analysis