This thesis aims at bringing about a greater awareness of the interpretive nature of forestry sciences by examining the ethics and values underlying the “Emulation of Natural Disturbance” (END) forest management approach in Canada. The thesis contains four main manuscripts. The first manuscript reports on a mental models analysis of the meaning of the END for academic forestry scientists across Canada. The results of this study indicate inconsistencies and contradictions between scientists’ mental model of the END, which puts into question the utility and appropriateness of the END for forestry policy. The second manuscript discusses the ethics underlying the END and critiques its policy implications from a pragmatic perspective. In the third manuscript the ethics and values underlying the END are put in relation with Holmes Rolston III’s ethics of “Following Nature”. The last manuscript reports on a survey of forestry curricula across North America conducted to ascertain the level of formal training in ethics afforded to professional foresters and natural resource managers. This manuscript contains a proposed course syllabus in forestry ethics. The curricula study complements the other manuscripts in that it is meant as another means by which to promote interdisciplinary dialogue among forestry scientists, environmental ethicists, and social scientists. In this thesis, in addition to trying to illustrate how ethics shape our interpretations of forests, a pragmatic approach is used to dissolve the fact/values and Nature/Culture dichotomies in forestry sciences and to argue for a more democratic approach to forestry policy.

This thesis aims at bringing about a greater awareness of the interpretive nature of forestry sciences by examining the ethics and values underlying the “Emulation of Natural Disturbance” (END) forest management approach in Canada. The thesis contains four main manuscripts. The first manuscript reports on a mental models analysis of the meaning of the END for academic forestry scientists across Canada. The results of this study indicate inconsistencies and contradictions between scientists’ mental model of the END, which puts into question the utility and appropriateness of the END for forestry policy. The second manuscript discusses the ethics underlying the END and critiques its policy implications from a pragmatic perspective. In the third manuscript the ethics and values underlying the END are put in relation with Holmes Rolston III’s ethics of “Following Nature”. The last manuscript reports on a survey of forestry curricula across North America conducted to ascertain the level of formal training in ethics afforded to professional foresters and natural resource managers. This manuscript contains a proposed course syllabus in forestry ethics. The curricula study complements the other manuscripts in that it is meant as another means by which to promote interdisciplinary dialogue among forestry scientists, environmental ethicists, and social scientists. In this thesis, in addition to trying to illustrate how ethics shape our interpretations of forests, a pragmatic approach is used to dissolve the fact/values and Nature/Culture dichotomies in forestry sciences and to argue for a more democratic approach to forestry policy.

This thesis aims at bringing about a greater awareness of the interpretive nature of forestry sciences by examining the ethics and values underlying the “Emulation of Natural Disturbance” (END) forest management approach in Canada. The thesis contains four main manuscripts. The first manuscript reports on a mental models analysis of the meaning of the END for academic forestry scientists across Canada. The results of this study indicate inconsistencies and contradictions between scientists’ mental model of the END, which puts into question the utility and appropriateness of the END for forestry policy. The second manuscript discusses the ethics underlying the END and critiques its policy implications from a pragmatic perspective. In the third manuscript the ethics and values underlying the END are put in relation with Holmes Rolston III’s ethics of “Following Nature”. The last manuscript reports on a survey of forestry curricula across North America conducted to ascertain the level of formal training in ethics afforded to professional foresters and natural resource managers. This manuscript contains a proposed course syllabus in forestry ethics. The curricula study complements the other manuscripts in that it is meant as another means by which to promote interdisciplinary dialogue among forestry scientists, environmental ethicists, and social scientists. In this thesis, in addition to trying to illustrate how ethics shape our interpretations of forests, a pragmatic approach is used to dissolve the fact/values and Nature/Culture dichotomies in forestry sciences and to argue for a more democratic approach to forestry policy. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

Detta examensarbete har gjorts tillsammans med företaget Flexator. I processen där ett modulhus monteras förekommer störningar som leder till ökade kostnader för företaget. Målet med studien har varit att identifiera störningar som uppstår, konsekvenser av störningar samt att sammanställa förslag till lösningar och rutiner i störningshanteringen. I studiens resultat framkommer det att ett flertal störningar upplevs återkomma i många av Flexators projekt, och att de mest frekvent återkommande störningar handlar om avsaknad av eller fel på material. Undersökningen visar även att flera aktörer på montageplats upplever brister i verksamhetens hantering av störningar. Studiens resultat pekar på att vissa störningar rapporterats vid ett flertal tillfällen under en längre tid men att någon förbättring inte märkts av. Det upplevs hos aktörer på montageplats som intervjuats att det ofta inte ges någon respons på utfärdade rapporteringar, vilket leder till minskad motivation att rapportera.

Nowadays global companies view the world as a single entity, sourcing materials fromanywhere and performing operations to create the optimal supply chain for their products.This leads to an increasing complexity which is driving supply management to becomea core capability of businesses. As supply chains are inherently vulnerable to disturbances,supply management will have to play a key role in the field of risk analysisand risk management. An increased awareness of sources of disturbances is essential tocreate significant improvements in the handling and prevention of disturbances.The purpose of this thesis is to identify and classify sources of disturbance which canhave a negative influence on a company’s supply management. This is achieved by theinvestigation of theories available in literature, as well as identifying and analyzing thedisturbances in the supply management of an international manufacturing company.Additionally, the theories on disturbance management are reviewed to create a foundationfor managerial implications.The company studied is Husqvarna, which currently is in a situation with several disturbancesin its supply management. The performed case study aims at both, describingthese phenomena, as well as testing of the theories. The chosen qualitative approachmakes it possible to gain in-depth knowledge and investigate different aspects ofsources of disturbances in this case study. The interviews performed are standardizedopen ended questionnaires in order to get in-depth knowledge of the situation.The empirical findings are then analyzed in regard to the purpose of the thesis. The goalof this analysis is to compare the sources of disturbances of the classification schemecreated in the literature review to the respondents’ answers from the interviews. Moreover,inputs and opinions from the respondents on how to manage disturbances are connectedwith the theories provided in the literature review within this field.Various sources of disturbance with a negative influence on the supply management ofcompanies are identified. It was also possible to compare the classification schemewhich was created based on the theoretical findings with the finding of the case study ofHusqvarna. Consequently a holistic overview of potential and actual sources of disturbancein supply management has been created. Furthermore, it is possible to contribute tothe body of knowledge on how to manage disturbances in supply management. Theprovided insights highlight implications that can help companies to successfully managedisturbances and hence improve their performance.

This dissertation comprises three interrelated studies exploring the effects of hurricanes on forestlands and the optimization of salvage logging practices. The first study examines land cover changes and salvage logging patterns following Hurricane Michael. It utilizes predictive models to identify key drivers of these changes, exploring the relative influence of storm intensity, forest vulnerability, and economic/operational factors. The second study builds upon these findings, focusing on the agent attribution for land cover change observations leveraging advanced remote sensing tools and relevant spatial data. By distinguishing between wind damage and salvage logging activities, it advances the understanding of post-hurricane land cover dynamics. The third study introduces a novel timber supply model that utilizes robust stochastic optimization to optimize salvage operations under uncertainty. It integrates various data sources to optimize site selection, transportation logistics, and resource allocation under uncertain timber stocks, aiming to enhance salvage operations' efficiency and economic returns. Collectively, these studies provide valuable insights for improved hurricane disturbance management.

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Disturbances in the railway network are frequent and to some extent, inevitable. When this happens, the traffic dispatchers need to re-schedule the train traffic and there is a need for decision support in this process. One purpose of such a decision support system would be to visualize the relevant, alternative re-scheduling solutions and benchmark them based on a set of relevant train traffic attributes which quantify the effects of each solution. Currently, there are two research projects financed by the Swedish Transport Administration (i.e. Trafikverket) which focus on developing decision support to assist the Swedish train traffic managers: The STEG project and the EOT project. Within the STEG project, researchers at Uppsala University in co-operation with Trafikverket are developing a graphical user interface (referred to as the STEG graph). Within the EOT project, researchers at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) are developing fast re-scheduling algorithms to propose to the Swedish train traffic dispatchers a set of relevant re-scheduling alternatives when disturbances occur. However, neither the STEG graph nor the EOT algorithms are at this point designed to evaluate, benchmark and visualize the alternative re-scheduling solutions. The main objective of this work is therefore to identify and analyze different train traffic attributes and how to use the selected relevant ones for benchmarking re-scheduling solutions. This involves enhancing an existing visual tool (EOT GUI) and using this extended version (referred to as the EOT GUI+) to demonstrate and evaluate the benchmarking of different re-scheduling solutions based on the selected train traffic attributes. The train traffic attributes found in the literature (foremost research publications and documents by Trafikverket) were collected and analyzed. A subset of the most commonly used attributes found were then selected and their applicability in benchmarking re-scheduling solutions for the Swedish train traffic system was further analyzed. The formulas for calculating each of the attribute values were either found in the literature and possibly modified, or defined within this thesis project. In order to assess the use of the attributes for benchmark solutions, experiments were conducted using the enhanced visual tool EOT GUI+ and a set of sample solutions for three different disturbance scenarios provided by the EOT project. The tool only performs a benchmark of two solutions at a time (i.e. a pair wise benchmark) and computes the attribute values for the chosen attributes. The literature review and attribute analysis resulted in a first set of ten different attributes to use including e.g. total final delay (with a delay threshold value of 1 and 5 minutes respectively), maximum delay, total accumulated delay, total delay cost, number of delayed trains and robustness. The formulas to compute these attribute values were implemented and applied to the sample solutions in the experiments. The first phase of the experiments showed that in one of the disturbance scenarios, some of the attribute values were in conflict and that none of re-scheduling solution was dominating the others. This observation led to that the set of attributes needed to be narrowed down and internally prioritized. Based on the experimental results and the analysis of what the research community and the main stakeholder (i.e. Trafikverket) consider are the most important attributes in this context, the final set of attributes to use includes average final delay, maximum delay of a single train, total number of delayed trains and robustness. The contribution of this thesis is primarily the review and analysis of what attributes to use when performing a benchmark of re-scheduling solutions in real-time train traffic disturbance management. Furthermore, this thesis also contributes by performing an experimental assessment of how the attributes and their formulas could work in a pair-wise, quantitative benchmark for a set of disturbance scenarios and which issues that may occur due to conflicting objectives and attribute values. Concerning the enhancement of the visual tool and the visualization of the re-scheduling solutions, the experimental evaluation and analysis shows that the tool would not fit directly to the needs of the train dispatchers. This work should therefore only be seen as a starting point for the researchers whom are working with the development of decision support systems in this context. Furthermore, several iterative experiments have been conducted to select the appropriate attributes for benchmarking solutions and suggesting the best re-scheduling solution. During the experiments, we have used a limited set of different problem instances (2+2+7) representing three different types of disturbances. The performance of the enhanced visual tool EOT GUI+ and its functionalities should ideally also be analyzed further and improved by experimenting with a larger number of instances, for other parts of the Swedish railway network and in co-operation with the real users, i.e. the dispatchers.