There are many theoretical approaches to modeling forest systems, but not all of them have valid practical applications. This book reviews current thinking on various models and explores a variety of areas and approaches. The papers in this book have been selected and developed from those presented at a workshop held in Portugal in June 2002. The topics covered include: forest reality and modeling strategies, mathematical approaches and reasoning, estimation processes models, validation and decision under uncertainty and model archives and metadata.The book will be of significant interest to those in areas of forestry, applied ecology, statistics and economics.