Title: Evaluation of a simulated annealing metaheuristic to solve a forest planning problem

Authors: Antonio Almeida De Barros Junior; Gustavo Willam Pereira; Geraldo Regis Mauri; Robson De Souza Melo

Addresses: Department of Computing, Federal University of Espírito Santo – UFES, Alto Universitário, s/n, Alegre-ES, Zip Code 29.500-000, Brazil ' Faculdade de F.C.L. Santa Marcelina, Praça Annina Bisegna, 40, Muriaé, MG, Zip Code 36.800-000, Brazil ' Department of Computing, Federal University of Espírito Santo – UFES, Alto Universitário, s/n, Alegre-ES, Zip Code 29.500-000, Brazil ' Department of Computing, Federal University of Espírito Santo – UFES, Alto Universitário, s/n, Alegre-ES, Zip Code 29.500-000, Brazil

Abstract: This paper discusses a forest planning problem that aims to obtain a specific management plan for the planting and harvesting of wood. The problem has the objective of maximising the net present value. A simulated annealing (SA) metaheuristic was proposed to solve the problem. The SA performance is tested in a set of ten problems generated from real data. The results obtained by the SA were compared with solution found by a GRASP and a genetic algorithm reported in the literature.

Keywords: simulated annealing; forest planning; metaheuristics; tree planting; wood harvesting; GRASP; genetic algorithms; forest management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAOM.2013.058895

International Journal of Advanced Operations Management, 2013 Vol.5 No.4, pp.376 - 387

Published online: 28 Apr 2014 *

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