Remembering Women’s Month – CAS Seminar Series 2: Mathematical model for sustainably harvesting a tropical forest

Summary

Ms. Clarisha Nijman, PhD Candidate at the University of French Guiana, Mathematics Department, shares her research on mathematical modelling for sustainable forest harvesting.

The aim of this study is to determine a height and time-based optimal control function to advise forest managers on how many trees of a specific species, in a heterogeneous forest, can be cut at a specific time. This mathematical optimization problem consists of a profit function for harvesting the forest, restricted by a system of nonlinear initial value bounded problems. The dynamic part of the model captures concepts of nature such as the growth rate of trees, the natural mortality, the birth of new trees, the competition for light, and the fact that trees are being harvested regularly.  Final evaluation of the model uses the finite difference scheme.