The PINEMAP (Pine Integrated Network: Education, Mitigation and Adaptation Project) Team recently announced a new tool release. The PINEMAP decision support system (DSS) is a map-based collection of climate and forest productivity web tools designed to provide region-wide information on likely future climate risks, opportunities, and impacts on southern pine at a watershed-scale.
DSS tools transform output from PINEMAP research into an easy-to-use visual framework. The intent is for professional foresters and clients to make informed land management decisions based on best available science into the near and distant future.
While the tools were developed with applications to professional foresters in mind, several of them may be useful for making other weather and climate sensitive decisions. All tools were developed through extensive beta testing, workshops, and meetings where interaction, improvements and suggestions were solicited among scientists and stakeholders.
The DSS is now publicly available at: http://climate.ncsu.edu/pinemap/
Currently, PINEMAP’s DSS contains tools that display information on a range of possible future climates at local scales, including extreme temperatures and seasonal precipitation, and provide guidance for selecting and marketing seedlings. Future tools will be added as research outputs become available.
The image above depicts the historical and projected average minimum temperature on the coldest day of the year for a user defined (lat./long) location south of Raleigh, NC. The multi-model mean (center screen) is the average of 20 different downscaled global climate models and the highest and lowest likely temperature screens to the sides reflect +/- 2 standard deviations from the mean. The graduated color scheme reflects 20-year slices out into the future (until end of century). Cooler colors represent close future projections (e.g. 2010-2029 and 2020-2039) while warmer colors reflect projections closer to the end of century (e.g. 2060-2079 and 2080-2099). Users can select among the three screens to zoom to a location of interest.
But Wait! There’s More
DSS tools coming in spring / summer 2016 include:
- growing season length
- drought and flood risk
- forest productivity model outputs, such as:
- gross and net primary productivity
- net ecosystem productivity
- merchantable volume
- carbon above ground
- water stress
Check out the newly released website and contact the State Climate Office if you have any questions or tool suggestions!
This post contributed by Heather Dinon Aldridge, Corey Davis and Ryan Boyles of the NC State Climate Office.
