MARCO A. CONTRERAS
Assistant Professor – Forest Management
Contact
me:
214 T.P. Cooper Building (office: 204)
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY 40546-0073
Tel: 859-257-5666
Fax: 859-323-1031
E-mail: marco.contreras@uky.edu
Education
- Ph.D. Forestry 2010, Forest Operations Planning, University of MT, USA
- M.S. Forestry 2006, Forest Transportation Planning, University of MT, USA
- B.S. Forest Eng. 2003, Harvesting & Management, Universidad de Talca, Chile
Research Interests
I am broadly interested in developing decision support systems (DSS) to improve the economic efficiency of forest management practices, including both market and non-market values, while ensuring environmental sustainability and operational feasibility. I am particularly interested in combining modern optimization and modeling techniques with advanced geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing technology to address a number of important problems facing forest managers. Typically, these problems arise from trying to achieve multiple goals that involve tradeoffs and from the increasing complexity of economic, social, and ecological systems that influence management decisions.
Specific research topics:
- Forest operations planning (road, harvesting, transportation)
- Forest management
- LiDAR technology and precision forestry
- GIS applications in forestry
- Mathematical programming
- Combinatorial optimization and metaheuristics
- Algorithm design and analysis
Publications
- Contreras, M., W. Chung. 2012. Developing a computerized approach for optimizing tree removal to efficiently reduce crown fire potential. (In review, Forest Ecology and Management).
- Contreras, M., P. Aracena, W. Chung. 2012. Improving accuracy in earthwork volume estimation for proposed forest roads using a high-resolution digital elevation model. (Accepted, Croatian Journal of Forest Engineering).
- Contreras, M., R. Parsons, W. Chung. 2012. Modeling tree-level fuel connectivity to evaluate the effectiveness of thinning treatments for reducing crown fire potential. Forest Ecology and Management 264(2)134-149.
- Contreras, M., D. Affleck, W. Chung. 2011. Evaluating tree competition indices as predictors of basal area increment in western Montana forests. Forest Ecology and Management 262(12):1939-1949.
- Contreras, M., W. Chung. 2011. A modeling approach to estimating skidding costs for individual trees for thinning operations. Western Journal of Applied Forestry 26(3):133-146.
- Contreras, M., W. Chung, G. Jones. 2008. Applying ant colony optimization meta-heuristic to solve forest transportation planning problems with side constraints. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 38(11):2896-2910.
- Contreras, M., W. Chung. 2007. A computer approach to finding an optimal log landing location and analyzing influencing factors for ground-based timber harvesting. Canadian Journal of Forest Research 37(2):276-292.