Abstract
Visualizing Management Responses to the Pine Beetle Epidemic in British Columbia Track: Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management Author(s): Michael Meitner, Ryan Gandy, Julian Gonzalez, Brent Chamberlain The current mountain pine beetle infestation in British Columbia is now the largest insect epidemic in North America's recorded history, currently affecting more than seven million hectares of forested land. This outbreak is projected to spread to over 800 million hectares by 2014, and the impacts could be much more far reaching if the beetles are successful in crossing into the boreal forest that stretches across Canada. The development of timely and appropriate management responses to this outbreak, which also respond to a wide variety of society's needs, is critical to successfully recovering from this disturbance. To aid in the decision-making process, we have coupled GIS with 3D visualization to allow for the rapid creation of near-photorealistic depictions of possible management responses. These visualizations, together with projected data, give forest planners and the public an opportunity to see how the future forest would likely recover given a particular response. Michael Meitner University of British Columbia Forest Resources Management 2045-2424 Main Mall Vancouver , BC V6T 1Z4 CA Phone: (604) 822-0029 E-mail: mike.meitner@ubc.ca Ryan Gandy University of British Columbia Forest Resources Management 2045-2424 Main Mall Vancouver , BC V6T 1Z4 CA Phone: (604) 822-6708 E-mail: gandy@interchange.ubc.ca Julian Gonzalez University of British Columbia Forest Resources Management 2045-2424 Main Mall Vancouver , BC V6T 1Z4 CA Phone: (604) 822-0029 E-mail: jgt@interchange.ubc.ca Brent Chamberlain University of British Columbia Forest Resources Management 2045-2424 Main Mall Vancouver , BC V6T 1Z4 CA Phone: (604) 822-0029 E-mail: chambs10@interchange.ubc.ca |
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