FOREST MANAGEMENT - A MULTICOMMODITY FLOW FORMULATION AND SENSITIVITYANALYSIS

We formulate the Forest Management Problem as a Multicommodity Network Flow Problem with a convex cost function, We then show how to transfe r the problem to an equivalent Single-Commodity Network Flow formulati on in order to address several sensitivity analysis questions using re sults by Granot and Veinott (1985). The answers can subsequently be us ed to help forest managers respond to changes in the environment such as fires or changes in market prices, without any additional computati on. Furthermore, the characterization of the response we provide requi res no prior knowledge of optimal management policies.