The European Forestry Dynamics Model (EFDM)

Abstract

The European Forestry Dynamics Model (EFDM) is a joint effort between the European Commission Joint Research Centre and partners in the EU Member States for the development of a forestry dynamics model. The model is expected to project the state of Europe’s forests given different climatic, economic and management scenarios. EFDM was designed as a flexible system to facilitate the different types of data input that are available from the diverse National Forest Inventories. The model captures different typologies such as site productivity, ownership and the probability of natural disturbances. Specifically, EFDM is able to process detailed national-level input data such as National Forest Inventories (NFI) outputs, as well as related national-level expertise in social and economic domains. In this way, the system supports effective utilization of the collaborative expertise in the parameterization of scenarios. This document is intended as a general introduction to the EFDM. Experiences gained from the EFDM test applications by five NFI teams (Austria, Finland, France, Portugal and Sweden) are also summarized in this report.