“YAFO is a planning-support tool for the development of management plans under uncertainty focusing on the forest enterprise level. Based on existing stand data, the software provides the calculation of management scenarios (felling plans) for single stands that are optimized with respect to financial considerations and ecological constraints. Under these constraints, YAFO predicts timber stocks, harvest amounts and financial returns for each simulation period.”
Härtl, Fabian; Hahn, Andreas; Knoke, Thomas (2013): Risk-sensitive planning support for forest enterprises. The YAFO model. In: Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 94, S. 58–70. DOI: 10.1016/j.compag.2013.03.004
Yafo was developed at the Institute of Forest Management (Technical University of Munich) and is continuously driven further to challenge new research questions. We appreciate the free educational version of Aimms to be up-to-date with the newest modelling techniques.
So far YAFO enabled new insights in:
- the effect of risk consideration in the management of forests
Hahn, Andreas; Härtl, Fabian; Irland, Lloyd C.; Kohler, Christoph; Moshammer, Ralf; Knoke, Thomas (2014): Financially optimized management planning under risk aversion results in even-flow sustained timber yield. In: Forest Policy and Economics 42, S. 30–41. DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2014.02.002
- strategies for carbon mitigation through forest management
Härtl, Fabian H.; Höllerl, Sebastian; Knoke, Thomas (2017): A new way of carbon accounting emphasises the crucial role of sustainable timber use for successful carbon mitigation strategies. In: Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 22 (8), S. 1163–1192. DOI: 10.1007/s11027-016-9720-1
- adapting forests to a changing climate with respect to multifunctionality in different European countries
Härtl, Fabian; Barka, Ivan; Hahn, Andreas; Hlásny, Tomáš; Irauschek, Florian; Knoke, Thomas et al. (2016): Multifunctionality in European mountain forests — an optimization under changing climatic conditions. In: Can. J. For. Res. 46 (2), S. 163–171. DOI: 10.1139/cjfr-2015-0264
- financial effects of coarse woody debris management for forest owners
Härtl, Fabian; Knoke, Thomas (2019): Coarse Woody Debris Management with Ambiguous Chance Constrained Robust Optimization. In: Forests 10 (6), S. 504. DOI: 10.3390/f10060504