Harvest scheduling under adjacency constraints — a case study from the Swedish sub‐alpine region

Abstract

Regulations defining the maximum opening size in the sub‐alpine region of Sweden, introduce new planning issues. The combinatorial problems that arise in harvest planning become very complex, but can be solved by different methods. In a case study, three different ways to find a solution were examined: a random search algorithm, a simulated annealing algorithm and the prebiased random search method found in the SNAP II program. Two different alternatives were studied, one with no road in the area and one with a road constructed. All three methods were found to give feasible solutions. The simulated annealing produced the best solutions, in terms of present net value, while the SNAP II program was the fastest. The SNAP II did not give as good solutions as the others in the case with a road, probably due to the lack of a distinct gradient in the structure.