Inventory, monitoring

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.

Applications like forest inventory and forestry planning, planning of fellings, optimization of harvesting and accounting processes, improvements of timber logistic, evaluation of damaging events etc. are expecting a realistic virtual illustration of the real forest. Within this project the preconditions for building up a single central database – the Virtual Forest - describing the extensive area of North Rhine-Westphalia are constructed. This database contains a mathematical description of biological and technical aspects of the real forest in different detailing (e.g. forest and single-tree consideration) and different precision. Apart from available terrestrial data and a digital site classification, developed by the Landesbetrieb Wald und Holz NRW, the Virtual Forest is based on remote sensing data and information derived thereof. It applies newly developed algorithms on well-known data formats: for single tree identification laser data and aerial images are used, tree species classification uses images and area segmentation is based on raster and vector data. Thus, a comprehensive survey ranging from inventory to forest growth to logistics can be provided. The Virtual Forest provides all stored data in a new 4D geo-data infrastructure while using standardised interfaces. All data (basic data, derived data, technical data, etc.) can also be used by third (programmes, users). Furthermore, a meta-data catalogue answers questions as “Which data of a certain area and/or to a specific subject are placed in which format, which exactness and which actuality at what costs at which place?” Appropriate safety concepts secure the data access as well as the data itself. The consequent consideration of the factor “time” transforms the 2D- or rather 3D- into a 4D-GIS based on a 4D geo-data infrastructure – the basis for a “time machine”. This enables the user to look at the forest at different (historical or future) conditions. The Virtual Forest serves as a foundation for abstracts of different economy units, which are from case to case both business and economically profitable, and with it for the management of larger amounts of wood at lower costs.