TUM features a strong, characteristic profile in the fields of Science and Engineering. Alongside the traditional key areas addressed by Technical Universities, powerful competence in Life Sciences and Sustainable Land Use has been built up at the Centre of Life and Food Sciences in Freising/Weihenstephan. IFM is strong in combining growth and risk modelling with economic consequences (bioeconomic modelling). Current projects funded by the German Science Foundation include topics such as “Economics and Diversity”, “Sustainable land use in a mountain rain forest”, “Bioeconomic modelling of silvicultural alternatives”, and “Market inclusion of ecosystem services”. In ARANGE the Institute of Forest Management (IFM) will be the main partner. TUM will be responsible for WP4 with particular emphasis on development of economic optimization approaches. TUM will also be active in the demonstration of ToolBox functionalities in selected case study regions.
Web site: www.wzw.tum.de/waldinventur
Persons involved:
Thomas F. Knoke
is Professor in Forest Management since 2005. His main research interests cover inter alia concepts of sustainability, land use optimisation, risk analysis: Assessment of fluctuating timber prices and damages caused by storm, snow, insects, appraisal of the carbon storage effect of stockpiling in forest operations, analysis of silvicultural alternatives as a problem of portfolio optimisation, planning and optimisation in forest holdings, management of forests with a homogeneous age structure, and near-natural forestry concepts. He has been actively involved in research unit RU816 (funded by the German Science Foundation), multi-partner projects funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and other projects carried out for the Bavarian Forest Administration.
Andreas Hahn
studied Forest Science at the TUM. During the course of his studies he completed internships in Chile, USA and Canada, concluding with a diploma thesis at Faber-Castell´s plantations for pencil production in Brazil and graduated in 2002. Afterwards he worked for the Bavarian State Forest Service. Since December 2005, as a deputed member of the Bavarian Forest Administration, he is scientific assistant at the IFM. His expertise is sustainability assurance and he has extensive international contacts and experiences in organising IUFRO meetings.
Verena Griess
is working as a research associate at the Institute of Forest Management, Technische Universität München. She is specialized in financial evaluation of ecosystem services as well as bioeconomic modeling. She is involved in the creation of optimization tools for multifunctional forest management. Her further research interests lie in the range of timberland investments and plantation evaluation.
