The eastern Jura Mountains consist of the Jura fold-thrust belt and the autochthonous Tabular Jura and Vesoul-Montbéliard Plateau. They are drained by the river Rhine, which flows into the North Sea, and the river Doubs, which flows into the Mediterranean. The internal drainage systems of the Jura fold-thrust belt consist of rivers flowing in synclinal valleys that are linked by river segments cutting orthogonally through anticlines. The latter appear to employ parts of the antecedent Jura Nagelfluh drainage system that had developed in response to Late Burdigalian uplift of the Vosges-Back Forest Arch, prior to Late Miocene-Pliocene deformation of the Jura fold-thrust belt. The following stages are recognized in the evolution of the Jura Mountain drainage systems: 1) middle to late Tortonian (10–7.2 Ma) folding-related overpowering and partial reversal of the south-directed Jura Nagelfluh drainage system, 2) Messinian to early Pliocene (7.2–4.2 Ma) Aare-Danube and proto-Doubs stage, 3) early to middle Pliocene (4.2–2.9 Ma) Aare-Doubs stage, 4) late Pliocene to early Quaternary (2.9–1.7 Ma) Aare-Rhine and Doubs stage and 5) Quaternary (1.7–0 Ma) Alpine-Rhine and Doubs stage. Development of the thin-skinned Jura fold-thrust belt controlled the first three stages of this drainage system evolution, whilst the last two stages were essentially governed by the subsidence of the Upper Rhine Graben, which resumed during the late Pliocene. Late Pliocene and Quaternary deep incision of the Aare-Rhine/Alpine-Rhine and its tributaries in the Jura Mountains and Black Forest is mainly attributed to lowering of the erosional base level in the continuously subsiding Upper Rhine Graben. Incision of the Doubs and Dessoubre canyons reflects uplift of the Franches-Montagnes and Franche-Comté in response to thick-skinned deformation of the Jura fold-thrust belt, which had commenced around 3 Ma. Geodetic data indicate that uplift of the Jura Mountains, relative to the Tabular Jura, presently continues at very low strain rates whilst the Upper Rhine Graben subsides very slowly and the Black Forest is relatively stable.

Efficient forest operations are required for the provision of biodiversity and numerous ecosystem services, such as wood production, carbon sequestration, protection against natural hazards and recreation. In numerous countries, under difficult terrain conditions, the costs of forest management and harvesting are not covered by timber revenue. One possible option to increase the cost-effectiveness of the forestry sector is the application of state-of-the-art harvesting and extraction techniques, so-called best suitable harvesting methods. We present a case study from Switzerland, where a lack of competitiveness in the forestry sector is of particular interest, with the aim of quantifying the efficiency gains if estimated best suitable harvesting methods were to be rigorously applied instead of the currently applied harvesting methods. For this purpose, we developed a spatial decision support system to allocate estimated best suitable harvesting methods to plots, while concurrently considering hauling route limitations, extraction route properties and stand characteristics. Our approach was based on productivity models and supported with expert-defined decision trees. The evaluation of the estimated best suitable harvesting methods and the comparison with the currently applied harvesting methods were completed for all 6500 National Forest Inventory (NFI) plots in Switzerland. We draw the following three major conclusions from our study: First, our modeling approach is an effective method to allocate estimated best suitable harvesting methods to NFI plots. Second, applying estimated best suitable harvesting methods would lead to cost reductions, in particular in the regions that include steep terrain and where harvesting mainly relies on cable- and air based extraction methods. Third, assuming an average timber price of 75 CHF m ^-3, 64 % instead of 52 % of the forest area could be harvested economically over the whole country if estimated best suitable methods were applied. This advantage would mainly be caused by a shift towards more mechanized harvesting methods. Improving the cost-effectiveness of the forestry sector is of high global relevance, as the increased use of domestic timber resources is a cost-efficient way to reduce atmospheric carbon emissions. The methodological framework described here was developed for Switzerland in particular, but it could be applied to Central Europe and other parts of Europe with a large amount of mountain forests.

Efficient forest management, and wood production in particular, requires a forest road network of appropriate density and bearing capacity. The road network affects the choice of a suitable extraction method and the length of the transport route from the forest, while the road standard defines the truck type that can be used.We evaluate the forest road network’s economic suitability for harvesting operations in the entire Swiss forest, an area of about 13,000 km² covering a range of topographies, based on the Swiss National Forest Inventory’s (NFI) forest road dataset. This dataset is based on information from an interview survey with the local forest services and includes all forest roads in Switzerland capable of carrying trucks. Extraction options and hauling routes are analysed together; thus, the entire logging process is examined.Model results include maps of the most suitable extraction method; extraction costs; hauling costs; and a suitability map based on a combination of the results. While the larger part of the Swiss forest is classified as “suitable” for economic harvesting operations, significant portions also fall into the “limited suitability” and “not suitable” categories. Our analysis provides an objective, country-wide, spatially explicit assessment of timber accessibility. The resulting suitability map helps identify areas where timber harvesting is economic using the current forest road network, and where it is not. The model results can be used in road network planning and management, for example, by comparing road-network re-design scenarios, and compared to the spatial distribution of available wood volume.

Despite relatively high road density in the forests of Switzerland, a large percentage of that road network does not fulfill best practice requirements. Before upgrading or rebuilding the road network, harvesting planners must first determine which areas have insufficient access. Traditional assessment methods tend to only report specific values such as road density. However, those values do not identify the exact parcels or areas that are inaccessible. Here, we present a model that assesses the economic suitability of each timbered parcel for wood-harvesting operations, including tree-felling and processing, and off- and on-road transport (hauling), based on the existing road network. The entire wood supply chain from forest (standing trees) to a virtual pile at the border of the planning unit was captured. This method was particularly designed for steep terrain and was tested in the Canton of Grisons in Switzerland. Compared with classical approaches, such as the road density concept, which only deliver average values, this new method enables planners to assess the development of a road network in a spatially explicit manner and to easily identify the reason and the location of shortcomings in the road network. Moreover, while other related spatially explicit approaches focus only on harvesting operations, the assessment method proposed here also includes limitations (road standards) of the road network.