Spectrum

Decision Support Software for Ecosystem Management

Overview

Spectrum is user-friendly software designed to help decision makers explore alternative resource management scenarios. It provides an integrating framework for multi-resource analysis, and capability to address NFMA requirements and ecosystem management issues. Model formulation is flexible, supporting simple to complex analysis.

User Interface Highlights

• Data entry system with on-line help
• Multiple model data set management
• Graphical data and solution display
• Relational data structure to store and query data and solutions
• Custom and default solution reports
• Data and solution import/export

Applications

• Forest Plan amendment and revision
• Landscape/watershed scale analysis
• Designing sustainable management strategies
• Land and resource allocation
• Estimating levels of goods and services
• Finding pathways to desired future condition
• Management activity scheduling
• Environmental effects analysis
• Economic analysis
• Tradeoff analysis
• Sensitivity analysis
• Policy analysis

Analysis Highlights

Flexible spatial and temporal scales:

• strata based and area based analysis units at user-defined scales
• up to 90 time periods of any length

Objective function options:

• maximize or minimize a single outcome or measure of performance
• minimize goal objective functions; under-achievement, over-achievement or both
• MAX/MIN -- maximize the minimum level of occurrence of a critical response
• MIN/MAX -- minimize the highest level of occurrence of an undesirable outcome

Natural disturbance and ecological simulation:

• Explicit stand mortality due to fire, insects and disease
• State, flow, and accessory variables for ecological process simulation
• Decision tree for modifying successional pathway

Nonlinear resource relationships:

• Nonlinear relationships between resources at any point in time per unit of land
• Step-wise linear approximation of nonlinear response functions for state, flow or accessory variables

Solution Reports

• 12 reports of decision variables
• comma delimited file for export to other programs
• relational database tables
• export solution to SpectraVision

Computer Requirements

Spectrum requires a 486 or better PC with 12 MB of memory, 10 MB of free hard disk space for the software, additional disk space as needed depending on model size, and a mouse. The commercial software "C-WHIZ", from Ketron Management Science is needed for solving model matricies.

Obtaining Spectrum

For additional information on Spectrum, contact Bruce Meneghin:

• [Phone: (970) 295-5725]
• [Fax: (970) 295-5885]
• [bmeneghin@fs.fed.us]

All Spectrum Version 2.6  files may be downloaded.
Page updated April 17, 2004