Impacts of the time horizon for adjacency constraints in harvest scheduling

Abstract

Adjacency constraints, constraints which limit the harvest timings of adjacent management units, are a challenge to address within forest management scheduling models. Four large test cases were examined to consider the need to recognize site-specific adjacency constraints over a long time horizon within a forest management scheduling model. Results suggest that the costs of adjacency constraints tend to be short-term in nature. Immediate periods tend to be influenced most because there is less lead time to prepare for the constraints. Little may be gained in planning by addressing adjacency constraints for more than a full rotation length. Adjacency constraints can likely be satisfied efficiently without having large shifts in harvest timings for most all management units. Results are consistent with an interpretation of the dual formulation of a relaxed linear programming formulation of the problem.