ALCES©

From the drop-down menu above, select from one of several categories that provide information about the ALCES model.

ALCES® is a landscape simulator that is fast, powerful, and user-friendly. ALCES was developed by Forem Technologies as a strategic-level simulation tool intended for use by resource managers, the scientific community, industrial landusers, and the general public. Its primary purpose is to facilitate "Integrated Resource Management", which has been defined by Alberta Environment (June 2000) as:

"an interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach to decision-making for natural resource management. This approach integrates decisions, legislation, policies, programs and activities across sectors to gain the best overall long-term benefits for society and to minimize conflicts. It recognizes that the use of a resource for one purpose can affect both the use of that resource for other purposes and the management and use of other resources".

An important objective of ALCES is to allow diverse stakeholders to gather together and explore the economic, ecological, and social consequences of different landuse trajectories on defined landscapes. These simulations need to run quickly and must be accurate at a strategic level. As stakeholders run ALCES into the future (a 100 year run takes ~100 seconds) they can appreciate the range of socio-economic and ecological outcomes of different landuse options and move toward a suite of landuses that optimize societal goals.

Specific examples of requests asked of ALCES by stakeholders include the ability to:
 
-forecast transformations of landscapes subjected to single or multiple human landuse practices and to various natural disturbance regimes

-track flows of natural resources (water, fiber, hydrocarbons, wildlife, livestock, carbon, agricultural products) and identify issues relating to sustainability of flows of natural resources

-track employment, expenditures, royalties and indirect economic benefits associated with flows of landuse resources (timber, hydrocarbon, water, electricity, etc) occurring on landscapes.

-define trade-offs that exist between landuse practices and environmental resources

-seek mitigation strategies that minimize adverse risk to ecological and economic goals