ForestGales: a management support tool tailored to maritime pine in the Landes de Gascogne

Following an overview of the various types of predictive models for tree stability in the wind, particularly mechanistic models, we present in greater detail one such model included in a decision-support tool, ForestGALES, and its adaptation to the maritime pine species in the context of the Landes forest. This adaptation was achieved through static bending tests, which enabled the anchoring behaviour of the species to be characterised according to site conditions and wind exposure. A link has been established between ForestGALES and the CAPSIS simulation platform: this enables the existing maritime pine growth model to be used to provide the stand characteristics required by ForestGALES as input, thereby simulating the wind resistance of stands under a wide range of silvicultural scenarios. The potential uses of the tool developed in this way for issuing silvicultural recommendations to managers are presented. Finally, we discuss the limitations and advantages of this type of model, as well as the prospects for their contribution to risk management.