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| Introduction |
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The Virtual Windbreak
As we have seen, density is the key to windbreak function and manipulating density is critical to windbreak renovation. If density is to be lowered, how much thinning or pruning should be done? How many rows of what species should be added to increase density? Answering these questions before taking action is crucial – mistakes made now may last for years or even decades.
Figure 4-1. The opening screen (Design Screen) of the Virtual Windbreak program.
To meet this challenge, we have developed the “Virtual Windbreak” (Figure 4-1). This program will allow you to build a multi-row windbreak, thin it, prune it or add and remove whole rows, all without leaving the computer (Figure 4-2). The Virtual Windbreak is based on the Stand Visualization System (SVS) developed by Robert McGaughey at the University of Washington, in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service. The program was designed to simulate normal forest conditions and manipulations (thinning, pruning, planting, etc.), all on a standard personal computer. We have reconfigured it to be used for windbreak renovation, in an on-line environment.
Figure 4-2. Example of a Virtual Windbreak developed with this program.
We have designed two exercises to help familiarize you with the system. After completing these tasks, we encourage you to “build your own” windbreak. That is, use this system to simulate the windbreak around your farmstead, or the living snow fence along the highway. Then manipulate these as you would like. One nice thing about this system is that you can always “uncut” the trees if the results of the operation aren’t what you wanted.
The data-entering screen for the Virtual Windbreak was designed to be simple and intuitive. You may proceed directly to the Virtual Windbreak module or go through the descriptions of the Design screen and the Management screen.
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Virtual Windbreak 1 - Introduction |
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