The Heureka System

Last changed: 02 February 2022
Orthophoto in Planwise showing optimization results from a recreation project.

The Heureka system is a software developed at SLU that allows the user to perform a larger amount of different analysis and management plans for forest and forestry. The system could be used for long and short term analyses of a number of different ecosystem services.

The Heureka system is developed at SLU and enables analysis and planning approaches for forest management aimed at multiple targets. Short- and long-term forecasts can be made for, e.g, timber production, economy, nature conservation, recreation and carbon sequestration.

The software can be applied from the individual stand and estates to the entire landscape or regions. The Heureka system is today used frequently in research, teaching and in practical forestry.

The Heureka system consists of a number of software, of which three softwares handle the forest dynamics. These three have a common core of models for the projection of forest conditions and models describing forestry activities, logging and related revenues, costs, etc. These three are StandWise, PlanWise and RegWise. StandWise is an interactive simulator for the analysis of individual stands. PlanWise is designed for the analysis of different alternatives and for seeking good solutions based on multiple goals. PlanWise is thus based on optimization. RegWise is on the other hand is based on a simulation approach and could be used for analyzing what happens to the forest, if the forest is managed in a certain way. Both PlanWise and RegWise can be used at different geographical scales. One software - PlanEval - is used for multi-criteria analysis in which alternative plans can be compared with respect to different goals e.g. timber production, biodiversity and recreation. Through a structured process, users can compare the results of different plans and rank
them according to the preferences of the stakeholder and decision makers.

The program for forest sustainability analyzes (SHA) is since 2011 responsible for the management of the Heureka system and since 2013 there is an agreement between different parties: governments, businesses companies and organizations, to jointly be responsible for the financing of the Heureka system. Thus, there is a base for the management and for some further development of the system. Additional functionality is added continuously into the system on behalf of various research projects.

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