This dataset supports the analysis presented in "From point clouds to forest management: Quantifying the sensitivity of a decision support framework to initialization data using close-range remote sensing" (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2026.103896). The repository covers two parts of the analysis: (1) data preparation from LiDAR-based forest inventories, and (2) sensitivity analysis of decision support system (DSS) outputs. The intermediate forest simulation (ForClim v4.1) and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) were carried out using an external pipeline described in Blattert et al. (2024), using the R package rforclim (v1.01.001) by Hiltner & Marano (2025). The corresponding model outputs are included here as inputs to the sensitivity analysis, making all analyses in this repository fully reproducible without requiring access to the simulation pipeline. The ForClim model (v4.1) (Marano et al., 2025) is openly available from the ETH Zurich Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems (https://ites-fe.ethz.ch/openaccess/products/forclim). Climate data were sourced from the publicly available Swiss CH2018 dataset (CH2018 Project Team, 2018). Soil data were sourced from Baltensweiler et al. (2024). For a detailed description of the repository structure, scripts, and data files, see the README file included in this dataset.

References

Blattert C, Mutterer S, Thrippleton T, Diaci J, Fidej G, Bont LG, Schweier J (2024). Managing European Alpine forests with close-to-nature forestry to improve climate change mitigation and multifunctionality. Ecological Indicators, 165, 112154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2024.112154 Baltensweiler A, Walthert L, Hanewinkel M, Zimmermann S, Nussbaum M (2024). Soil property maps for the Swiss forest. EnviDat. https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.484 CH2018 Project Team (2018). CH2018 - Climate Scenarios for Switzerland. National Centre for Climate Services, Zurich. https://www.nccs.admin.ch/nccs/en/home/climate-change-and-impacts/swiss-climate-change-scenarios/ch2018---climate-scenarios-for-switzerland.html Marano, G., Hiltner, U., Meusburger, K., Hands, T., & Bugmann, H. (2025). Predicting drought-induced tree mortality in Swiss beech forests hinges upon predisposing and inciting factors (p. 2025.12.15.694299). bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.15.694299 Hiltner U, Marano G (2025). rforclim: Collection of useful functions to parameterize and run the forest model ForClim. R package version 1.01.001. Available on request from the ETH Zurich Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems.