Abstract
Forest resource, slope, public and forest road layers of Geographic Information System (GIS) were obtained from a prefecture where a model area was located, in order to calculate harvesting costs of timber and forest biomass resources. Future forest resources at each stand were predicted using Richard's growth curves. Then, stand harvesting schedules were planned by balancing harvesting volumes of timber and forest biomass resources using random search while minimizing harvesting costs. This schedule will make it possible to supply forest biomass resources to an energy plant stably. The schedule will also be used to supply harvested timbers from the model area stably. Balanced harvesting forest biomass resources will be sufficient to supply electricity to 24.8% of houses in the model area. Fuel cost of electricity, 19.50 yen/kWh, was a little higher than the average electricity price in Japan, 18.17 yen/kWh. In order to use forest biomass resources as energy, it is necessary to reduce harvesting costs remarkably by developing forest road networks and machines for harvesting and transporting forest biomass resources efficiently.
