The feasibility of a geographical information base for supporting industrial forestry operations decisions was investigated by identifying the data needs of the industry, the sources of the data with the data's availability, cost, and media, and the available software which could be used in developing the system. The major data needs are a description of an area by terrain, soils, forest type with growth and removal data, and climatic data. Information on the micro-terrain encountered in an area was often requested by equipment companies. Land and mill managing firms requested soils data of a site quality nature while equipment companies wanted trafficability measurements. Both wanted information describing the local wood using industry by type and size of firm, the raw material{s) procured, production capacity, and product(s). The sources of the data are numerous, and much of the data can be acquired in machine readable form. Soils data presents the largest problem of high cost and time to gather and input, and is not available for many areas. Work on extraction and interpolation of forest survey data is necessary to meet equipment engineering needs. The system is best developed in a modular fashion. Much of the software can be directly purchased. Conscientious efforts must be made to include input from potential users in the development and implementation of the system if it is to succeed. It was concluded that further development should be aimed at the equipment companies where the information base appeared most needed and wanted.

Master of Science