Precision Forestry: Technologies and Purpose

Forestry in 2021 is more advanced than ever.

17:00 05 July 2021

Modern foresters have the luxury of relying on expertise from different scientists like dendrologists, biologists, geologists and many others to monitor and analyze silviculture, soil, fires, diseases, etc. when planning forest management and creating forestry maps. Besides, today’s technology is there to help easily collect and analyze all the necessary data with high precision, revolutionizing the forestry industry and shifting it towards sustainability.

 

In the broadest sense, sustainable forestry encompasses environmental, legal, administrative, technical, and socio-economic aspects of forest use and preservation. It implies various degrees of human interference: from activities aimed at preserving and maintaining forest ecosystems and their functions to ones aimed at supporting specific socially or economically valuable species or groups of species to improve the production of goods and services that rely on wood. In addition to forest products, sustainably managed forests provide such important ecosystem services as carbon level management, biodiversity preservation, and water resources protection.

 

A huge area of the world's forest is not sustainably managed. This issue is especially evident in the tropic and subtropic regions. That is due to governments lacking smarter forestry legislation, regulation and incentives to promote sustainable forest use. Many of them do not have sufficient financial and human resources to plan, implement, and monitor forest management plans and lack mechanisms to ensure the participation and involvement of all parties. And where those plans exist, they are often limited to ensuring sustainable wood production and do not pay sufficient attention to sustainable non-timber production and ecosystem services, as well as maintaining social and environmental values, which may lead to forest degradation and deforestation.

 

Precision Forestry Definition

 

Digitization is already significantly transforming many industries worldwide, from manufacturing to healthcare. For instance, agriculture has already undergone huge changes thanks to the implementation of different technologies like remote field monitoring and automated farm equipment. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about forestry. The industry is far behind in the adoption of digital technologies compared to others. Good thing is that the situation is finally starting to change.

 

Inspired by the success of different farming tech advances in agriculture, forestry players all over the world have started utilizing new technologies to experience their promised benefits and improve forest monitoring and management overall via smarter and accurate decision-making. Such an approach to how humanity interacts with forests in exactly what we call precision forestry.

 

The pioneers in the implementation of precision forestry were the plantation forestry operators as the ones who already had a long record of innovations and improvements used for productivity increase.This is similar to monoculture planting in agriculture. For instance, selectively bred tree species are often referred to as tree farms.

 

Ultimately, precision forestry is possible thanks to the use of a broad array of modern technologies, such as drones or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), laser scanning (LiDAR), and ground sensors.

 

These technologies enable significant enhancement in forest monitoring and management thank to the combination of the following possibilities:

 

• Improved data collection for better control of activities
  
  
• Improved prescription based on the forest stand and its needs (soil nutrients, seed genetic material)
  
  
• Activities automation from planting to transportation
  
  
• Optimization of decision-making based on innovative analytics

Now, let’s get into more details about the instruments of precision forestry to see how they can be used and for what purposes exactly.

 

Instruments of Precision Forestry

 

Most instruments utilized in precision forestry are connected to GIS, GPS, and remote sensing. Remote sensing allows for receiving Earth satellite imagery that can be analyzed via special algorithms of various digital tools to pull out invaluable information on forest composition, health, moisture levels, fires and floods threats.

 

Drones & UAVs

 

Drones or UAVs can be remotely guided to fly over the forest of interest with the goal of scanning the area under the canopy. Drones do not require the use of GPS navigation or automated operations and are utilized for:

 

• Specific stands mapping
  
  
• Fires and floods threats detection
  
  
• Impacted areas monitoring (damage evaluation)
  
  
• Seed dispersion (tree-planting drones)
  
  
• Herbicides and pesticides application

 

LiDAR

 

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is part of remote sensing technique which implies the use of GPS and near infra-red laser with the purpose of creating a precise 3D map of the forest area. Such technology allows for easily retrieving the following data:

 

• Trees shape, height, leaves density, and more
  
  
• Vertical forest stand structure
  
  
• Forest under-storey vegetation state
  
  
• Inventory volume
  
  
• Post-harvest surveys
  
  
• Diseases above ground and underground (e.g. root rot)

 

Sensors

 

Sensors allow for obtaining precise data on soil health, nutrients content, and individual plants state to enable accurate variable rate application approach on the site. Basically, sensors are small and mobile tools that offer accurate, relevant, and valuable information.

 

Here are the most leveraged types of sensors and the ways of their use:

 

• Canopy Imagers for vegetation health, soil erosion, and carbon fixation monitoring
  
  
• Soil sensors for its temperature and moisture level monitoring
  
  
• Spectrometers for plant’s heat stress detection and chlorophyll levels measurement for biomass estimation
  
  
• Portable minirhizotrons for root pests and pathogens detection
  
  
• Leaf area meters for tree yields estimation

 

Big Data

 

Big data is what allows for accumulating all of the data collected through remote sensing and ground observations. With this huge pool of information at their hands, scientists get a reliable basis for ecosystem services evaluation. Besides, the analysis of this data is helpful when predicting the future changes that may occur in forests due to either human activity or climate-related events.

 

Forestry, like other industries, requires thoughtful planning and regular surveys for it to function effectively and sustainably, without leading to environmental damage. To ensure such sustainability, precision forestry offers a variety of technologies some of which have already been tried and tested for decades in agriculture and other spheres, proving their effectiveness. This range of technologies continues to grow and merge together due to modern technological innovations, allowing for their wider adoption across the forestry industry. Ultimately, no matter if implemented for forest conservation or product delivery purposes, precision forestry is reimagining the game of forest monitoring and management.