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Control of simulation flow

Wood Processing Model (WPM)

The Wood Processing Model (WPM) estimates the carbon content in different timber products and such carbon reservoirs as landfill and atmosphere over the given number of years.

As input values WPM uses the pre-estimated amount of harvested wood from the 4C simulation, assumed a forest management was accomplished. A spinup file can be used to initialize single product, landfill and atmosphere pools with realistic values.

First, the harvested wood is sorted in different timber grades which then are rearranged into different timber product groups.

Then the product group carbon flow is simulated over the number of simulation years. The product groups have different life spans. The life span functions determine the half-life period of timber and therefore the recycled timber amount yearly. The timber removed from the product groups is partly recycled and returns into the timber cycle labelled as timber of age 0.

The carbon cycle ends on landfill areas, by burning and hence in the atmosphere. A fixed percentage rate from the landfill carbon volatilises to the atmosphere where it accumulates over the years.

The implementation of WPM is mainly based on Eggers (2002) and is described in detail in the [WPM-document].

Getting Started

To get started following is required:

  1. Set the flag_wpm to the desired value
  2. Make sure forest management took action
  3. A spinup file must exist in the input directory (can be a dummy file)*.

Flag Options

flag name

value

description

flag_wpm

0

no calculation of sea and wpm

 

1

calculation of wpm with the German parameter set

 

2

SEA calculation

 

3

WPM and SEA calculation

 

21, 31

WPM with other parameter sets

The Output

Two output files are generated. The output includes the different sorted timber grades and the carbon amount in different timber categories per year.

Output Files

extension

description

"_wpm"

carbon content in different pools after calculating

- use categories

- burning

- landfill

- atmosphere

"_wpm_inter"

intermediate steps of WPM

carbon content in different products as

- timber grades

- industrial lines

- product lines

The Implementation

The implementation of the WPM (Wood Processing Model) consists of

  • data modules
  • WPM functions
  • implemented interfaces in the 4C simulation
  • initial, allocate and deallocate functions

Data Module data_wpm

This section describes variables stored in the data_wpm module used for the WPM.

data_wpm Description

stored in

description

mansort, standsort, manrec

data from the 4C simulation

mansort: harvested wood

standsort: standing stock

manrec: management information

product_lines

product lines information: values and sorting parameters

use_categories

use categories: parameters and values

landfill

amount of carbon in landfill per year

burning

amount of burned carbon per year

atmo_year, atmo_cum

amount of carbon in the atmosphere, yearly and accumulated

debug, spinup

processing flags

life_span

parameters for the life span function

half-life period

parameters

proc_par

sorting parameters for product lines and use categories

nr_years

simulation years number

nr_management_years

management years number

nr_pr_ln

product lines number

pl

intermediate results of sequential sorting of the product lines ("_wpm_inter" output)

sum_use_cat

sums of use categories values per year

sum_input

sums of input carbon per year

use_cat

final use categories values, used for the output

The Functions

The implemented functions correspond to the single steps of the WPM and are proceeded sequently. The overview of the single processes can be seen in [WPM-document].

Subroutines Description

subroutines

content description

calculate_product_lines

sorting and aggregation of the removals into the product lines / roundwood for each management year

calculate_wood_processing

the already calculated product lines sortings due to the parameters

industrial lines (IL) =>  product lines (PL) => use categories (UC)

calculate_use_categories

aggregation of the product lines to the initial use categories values for each management year

calculate_output

calculations of the carbon distribution in the pools as result of the timber circle and the recycling process

The Coupling to the 4C implementation

The coupling of the WPM and the 4C implementation can be distinguished into two parts

  • the input interface and
  • the output interface

As mentioned above, WPM uses both the mansort and the manrec data modules and some general information such as number of simulation years as input data.

For the output the changes were made to match the 4C output interface in three files: amod_out.f, old_out.f, output.f.

The deallocation of wpm is called after one simulation run is over in finisim.f

Input Interface

data

where

mansort

sorting of timber in timsort.f

manrec

management subroutines in management.f

year etc.

import of the data_simul module

WPM Subroutine Calls in 4C

content

Fotran files

WPM subroutine calls

simul.f

finisim.f

WPM data, subroutines etc.

wpm.f

wpm_wood_proc.f

amod_wpm.f

output interface

amod_out.f

old_out.f

output.f

input interface

timsort.f

management.f

simul.f

amod_simul.f

The spinup file

The initial values of all the product lines, use categories, landfill, burning and atmosphere pools are filled with 0. This is not a realistic approach because the wood production might have been running for decades before the beginning of the simulation. The spinup file contains estimated initial values for the mentioned pools.

The spinup process is based on an ordinary WPM calculation. A mansort file with continually input of harvested wood is used as input. A proper simulation time was selected to make sure the pools volumes become steady over the years.

The spinup file preparation is released as a separate tool. As mentioned above, it needs a hand-made mansort and manrec files. The output is a spinup file.

* The spinup file for WPM can be set by the PC version of 4C.

 

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