User's guide to RegWise

Introduction

RegWise (sv: RegVis) is a tool for large-scale forestry scenario analysis. Because users have different assumptions about forest management and use, the application can evaluate a variety of forestry-related issues. What to analyse is decided by the user and may include many utilities: supply of timber, forest fuel ("bio-energy"), development of biodiversity, and amount of carbon sequestration in forest.

The basic analyse done with RegWise is non-spatial. In such an analysis you would normally choose to use National Forest Inventory (NFI) survey plots as input data. A spatial analysis requires whole-coverage data, which is obtained by combining NFI plots with remote sensing data. One method to combine data is called kNN, and Heureka will offer the possibility to import kNN-Sweden data ([1]). A GIS-tool for working with landscape samples in the form of 1x1 km contiguous squares have been developed.

Results can be presented in tables and maps that describe the state and development of the forest ecosystem as well as outcomes of cuttings and other utilities.

The application addresses the needs of information desired by different kind of users, for example the Swedish Forest Agency, the Swedish Environmental Agency, large forest companies, and branch organizations and actors interested in forest policy issues. Because many uses are included in the analyses, other organizations - such as municipalities, county administrations, and NGO:s - will benefit from the analyses.