Forest carbon sequestration through the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) plays a critical role in achieving Net-Zero Emissions. However, high transaction costs often constrain the financial viability of smallholder participation. This study presents an empirical economic assessment over a 20-year period, comparing monoculture and mixed-species plantations under the Thailand Voluntary Emission Reduction Program (T-VER) framework. Financial analysis was conducted at a 1-hectare baseline, explicitly incorporating fixed costs associated with project registration and verification. Results indicate that all plantation models are financially feasible at a 1-hectare baseline. The highest economic return was achieved by the mixed-species plantation using biomass measurement with a 10-year verification interval, generating a maximum calculated Net Present Value (NPV) of THB 3,590,432 (USD 109,198) and an Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 13.95
Mediterranean forests are becoming increasingly vulnerable to wildfires. Given this, there is an urgent need for accurate, high-resolution data on canopy fuel characteristics to facilitate fire behavior modeling and guide risk mitigation efforts. This study assesses the performance of handheld mobile laser scanning (HMLS) and low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle digital aerial photogrammetry (UAV-DAP) in estimating key canopy fuel parameters and stand structural attributes, including canopy base height, stand height, canopy fuel load, canopy bulk density, and canopy cover. Field data were collected from 12 circular plots in open woodlands (dehesas) dominated by Quercus suber or Quercus ilex in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Each plot was surveyed using traditional forest inventory, HMLS with a GeoSLAM ZEB Horizon scanner, and UAV DAP with RGB imagery processed using structure-from-motion techniques. In both cases, the resulting point clouds were processed using LiDAR360 software to extract canopy fuel parameters. HMLS yielded the most accurate estimates for most variables, with relative root mean square error (RMSE
Despite the rapid integration of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in forest management, a significant knowledge gap persists regarding their true economic viability. A recent systematic literature review reveals that only 8
Wildfires are major ecological disturbances that profoundly influence forest soils, altering hydrological processes, biogeochemical cycling, microbial functioning, and ecosystem recovery. As wildfire regimes continue to change under changing climatic conditions, understanding post-fire soil responses has become a critical priority for sustainable forest management and restoration. However, the rapidly expanding wildfire–soil literature remains fragmented across multiple disciplines, limiting integrated understanding of the mechanisms governing soil recovery and ecosystem resilience. This study combined bibliometric analysis with mechanistic thematic synthesis to examine the evolution and conceptual structure of wildfire–soil research and synthesize the principal thematic domains concerning wildfire impacts on forest soils. A total of 1938 publications indexed in the Scopus database between 1977 and 2025 were analysed using keyword co-occurrence, multiple correspondence analysis, thematic evolution, and collaboration network analyses. The identified thematic patterns guided an integrated synthesis of post-fire hydrological, biogeochemical, microbial, and ecological responses. Results revealed sustained growth in wildfire–soil research, with a clear transition from early emphasis on erosion, nutrient loss, and disturbance effects toward pyrogenic carbon dynamics, microbial ecology, hydrological processes, and ecosystem resilience. The synthesis demonstrated that wildfire-induced soil responses arise from interacting physical, chemical, and biological processes operating across spatial and temporal scales. Fire-induced hydrophobicity, aggregate degradation, vegetation loss, and thermal transformation of soil organic matter collectively regulate infiltration, erosion, carbon dynamics, nutrient cycling, and microbial succession. This synthesis identifies key research priorities for understanding post-fire soil responses under evolving fire regimes.
Post-fire forest regeneration in semi-arid Mediterranean regions is increasingly threatened by climate change, yet predictive tools for data-limited contexts remain scarce. This study develops and validates a methodological framework for assessing post-fire resilience in Chlef wilaya, northwestern Algeria, using 52 fire events recorded between 2015 and 2024. The differenced Normalized Burn Ratio (dNBR) was modeled as a function of topographic and climatic variables using regularized regression approaches, with ridge regression selected as optimal based on Leave-One-Out Cross-Validation (LOOCV R2 = 0.198, RMSE = 0.127). Field validation at 18 sites demonstrated strong agreement between satellite-derived and ground-measured regeneration metrics (r = 0.89, RMSE = 0.042). Piecewise regression analysis identified a critical Post-Fire Water Stress Index threshold (ISHF = 6.48 ± 0.31; Davies test, p < 0.001) above which regeneration systematically fails. A composite Forest Vulnerability Index was constructed using Principal Component Analysis-derived weights, explaining 45
