Forest management, ecosystem, resilience

The preservation of forest functions and the supply of a region with the renewable resource wood require new strategies for forest owners, which they can only implement in cooperation with various partners. Answers to these challenges are to be developed within the framework of this pilot project, for which the political district of "Graz-Umgebung" was selected for Austria, on the basis of a sustainable wood mobilisation chain and climate-fit forest management. Timber mobilisation in private forests means mobilising forest owners and getting them interested in climate-friendly forest management. Because of property protection, additional wood mobilisation can only be achieved in cooperation with the forest owners. An essential step in the project is to point out exemplary small-scale forest managers who have been exploiting their wood utilisation potential for generations in the form of active family forestry. Under the motto "We make our forest climate-fit", active small-scale forest managers are brought into the public eye as climate-fit ambassadors.

The main objectives are:

• Establish continuity in the support and advice of forest owners
• Increase wood volumes from the project region
• Targeted public relations measures in the urban environment to generate a positive perception about the need to manage our forests
• Establish an advisory and support structure that can be ensured without public funding beyond the project
• Further development of digital offers for forest owners

 The online portal is an automatic method for identifying illegally cut timber transports from Romania. The users are able to observe alerts from satellites indicating information and once every few days (between 2 and 7 days depending on the satellite) any change in the aerial image associated with the forest vegetation in Romania. The portal also accesses the SUMAL database of the Ministry of Water and Forests in real time. From this database, information is extracted to be processed in the internal system, about the enhancement documents on wood harvests, the locations from where the timber transports are loaded and the information related to these points.The permits on wood harvest became digitalized, therefore all harvesting activity can be checked by satellite monitoring while the transports must obtain a unique code before leaving the place of loading. This code is only obtained after the transport information has been entered into the system, including the location where the code was requested.
The portal, through further developments, also contains an API (set learned of rules), which allows automatic access to all information publicly presented on this portal (layers, transport coordinates and related metadata, enhancement documents, etc.), so that other interested actors can make analyzes that will lead to stopping illegal logging.

The system consists of four components:

• remote sensing data - quick access to current and historical data, enabling the user to compare satellite images from different periods;
• complementary data - cadastral data and detailed forest inventory data from management plans (FMP);
• remote sensing data products - geometric layers resulting from the processing of satellite images, showing the condition and health status of vegetation and forests;
• geospatial analyses - juxtaposition of remote sensing data products with cadastral data and detailed forest inventory data, enabling to identify inconsistencies between the actual state of the forest and the state recorded in databases, as well as recent changes.

The entire solution is based on an intuitive map portal for users, which is used to generate various types of maps, including maps of forests and tree cover, forest changes, maps of forest types, maps of forest condition, maps of crown density, maps of aboveground forest biomass and the extent of stand damage due to windstorms, fires, floods and insect infestations. Users of the system have access to current and archival satellite images, and they can compare different types of maps with complementary data as well as upload their own data sets.

The aim of the project was to work out the complex method of defining selected forest stand descriptions as well as aboveground biomass and carbon sequestration, based on the use of remote sensing for the purposes of forest management planning.

Among main goals were:

• acquisition and processing of remote sensing, laboratory and field data,
• determining the amount of biomass and carbon in the forest based on radar data,
• development of methods for the inventory of selected stand descriptions, growing stock and biomass with the use of active remote sensing techniques,
• local correction of dendrometric volume equations based on terrestrial laser scanning data (TLS),
• development of the merchantable volume conversion factors into biomass and carbon.

Results of the project allow to: reduce time needed to carry out the work of the forest management, especially inventory of growing stock; obtain higher accuracy of the CO₂ balance, biomass and annual allowable cut calculations; determine growing stock for any forest area; reduce cost of field work in forest management.

Small-size private-owned forest areas are common in Portugal in particular North of the Tagus River. Small patches of forest hinder proper forest management, often leading to increased unmanaged areas more prone to wildfires, pests and diseases. The Baixo Vouga Forest owners association has developed a program of forest area aggregation to tackle this problem by grouping of contiguous areas with the overall aim of facilitating management operations. This will consequently reduce the occurrence of hazards, improve and increase well-managed areas, increase return and motivate investment. To implement the program, at least 5 forest owners with at least 5 properties, summing-up no less than 10 hectares are rquired. Then a GPS-based inventory is carried out and a forest management plan is developed. The program is based on quota-based investments and revenues that will be distributed among those involved with the aim of increasing the engagement, motivation and appreciation of all the agents involved. So far, several areas have been aggregated covering different number of forest owners (e.g. Panasqueira, Águeda, 15 properties belonging to 12 forest owners were aggregated resulting in c.a. 11 thousand ha of forest planted and managed under the same forest management plan) and there are other, more ambitious, still ongoing (e.g. in Lavandeira, Vagos, 211 properties belonging to 138 forest owners were aggregated resulting in c.a. 73 thousand ha).

FeltGis was established in 2016 by three entrepreneurs from the IT and forestry sector with intent to develop easy to use digital solutions for increased efficiency in the forestry value chain. Today the FeltGis team consists of four working partners and are owned by a group of shareholders in an Ltd.  The product FeltBox is a wireless router connecting the forestry machine to the application FeltLog. The FeltLog app makes it possible to transfer information to a computer and to receive data. Two-way communication allows the forestry machine operator to receive work descriptions and to forward production data to the whole value chain. Production data is uploaded to a central database and the user has full control over what data to transfer. FeltBox can easily be installed in any forestry machine regardless of brand, at an affordable price. The system uses access via smartphone to stay updated and to transfer information, no additional internet connection is required. Today 100+ FeltGis solutions are installed in Norway and the same number are installed for testing in different countries. The FeltGis team actively work to develop customized and market-oriented solutions for the national and international market and has concrete plans for developing new innovative solutions in the time to come, expanding their product portfolio in both depth and width. The FeltGis team are currently in dialog with stakeholders from France, Spain, Uruguay, Ireland, and Finland.

A lack of forest site information in Styria created a need for a new approach to forest site classification and mapping, considering the changing climatic conditions, which will affect the classification of forest sites and the choice of tree species. Theoretical concepts for a new approach in "dynamic site classification" existed, but the implementation of an integrated site and forest classification in for the whole forest area in Styria has been a scientific challenge. In this project the forest site classification is based on a GIS-based geo-ecological stratification model. The database is based on a digital elevation model, a geological base map, digitally available site and climate data as well as empirical site parameters. A map of forest types is derived based on several thematic maps, including information about energy, water and nutrient balance. Those parameters are modeled on the basis of point and area related data, which are then combined into forest types with a uniform combination of factors. The model allows a stratification of the forest types on all sites based on digital geo-ecological parameters. In addition to the ecological facts, each forest type is characterized by a description of silvicultural guidelines containing information on the appropriate choice of tree species, potential hazards and adaptation methods. These guidelines also describe previous experiences with the tree species and their mixtures, and will provide recommendations for the future forest management with regard to climate change.

Cross-Forest está desarrollando una plataforma común de datos forestales abiertos y un modelo de datos transfronterizo (ontología) compartido entre Portugal y España, para la publicación de inventarios forestales, mapas y otras bases de datos forestales en formato Linked Open Data (LOD). Cross-Forest proporcionará un repositorio público (endpoint) de publicación de Datos Forestales según el modelo producido. El objetivo principal se centra en mantener la información forestal siempre disponible y actualizada para facilitar su explotación a todos los agentes implicados en la gestión e investigación forestal.

Se están desarrollando dos casos de uso:
CAMBRIC - orientado a simular la evolución de las masas forestales y la calidad de la madera en distintos escenarios de gestión forestal.
FRAME – enfocado a la predicción del comportamiento y propagación de los incendios forestales a través de información precisa sobre materiales combustibles, mapas forestales y modelos de propagación.

Se emplean recursos de computación de alto rendimiento (HPC) debido a la cantidad de datos generados y gestionados, y a la complejidad de los modelos.

Los resultados obtenidos hasta ahora demuestran la utilidad y versatilidad que proporciona la tecnología LOD, ya que permite a los usuarios acceder y gestionar libremente datos actualizados para desarrollar herramientas adaptadas a sus necesidades y propósitos. La publicación de datos como LOD permite a las Administraciones Públicas cumplir fácilmente con sus requisitos de transparencia y publicidad, optimizar recursos y llevar un control estadístico del uso de los datos públicos.

Cross-Forest is developing a common platform for open forest data, and a cross-border data model (ontology) shared between Portugal and Spain, for the publication of forest inventories, maps and other forest databases in Linked Open Data format (LOD). Cross-Forest will provide a public endpoint exposing Forest Data, according to the produced model. The main goal is focused on keeping forest information always available and updated, to make exploitation easier for all stakeholders involved in forest management and research.
Two use cases are being developed:
CAMBRIC - to estimate the evolution of forests and wood quality, under different management scenarios
FRAME - to predict forest fires behavior and spreading through precise information on combustible materials, forestry maps and propagation models.
High Performance Computing (HPC) resources are employed due to the amount of data generated and managed, and to the complexity of the models.
Results so far show the usefulness and versatility provided by LOD technology, as It allows users to freely access and manage updated data to develop tools adapted to their needs and purposes. Publishing data as LOD allows Public Administrations to easily fulfil their requirements of transparence and publicity, optimize resources and keep a statistic control of the use of public data.