This study is part of a series of research papers that explore the biological, social, and economic aspects of British Columbia's mountain pine beetle epidemic. In this paper, an established decision support system was evaluated for operational use. Digital forest inventory and beetle-impact survey data were integrated in standard GIS software for rating susceptibility and risk of mountain pine beetle infestation. The beetle-impact data, collected over a three-year period, provided an opportunity to generate risk on a given year and compare it to attacks in the subsequent year.--Includes text from Government of Canada publications site and from document.

In western Canada, the operational risk rating system for mountain pine beetle is based on biological knowledge gained from a rich legacy of stand-scale field studies. Owing to the large spatial and temporal extents of the current epidemic, new research into large-area mountain pine beetle processes has revealed further insights into the landscape-scale characteristics of beetle infested forests. This research evaluates the potential for this new knowledge to augment an established system for rating the short-term risk of tree mortality in a stand due to mountain pine beetle.--Publisher's website.