Forests and Wood Products Australia (FWPA) has released a report titled Next Generation Resource Assessment and Forecasting for Australian Plantation Forestry stating that Australian plantation forest managers face considerable and increasing challenges to maintain and develop their forest growth and yield planning systems. Sources: Timberbiz, FWPA
While increasing precision and detail on the current and future attributes of their plantation resource is required, there is ever increasing opportunity and complexity in using new data sources that are becoming available, especially from sensors (satellite, airborne or ground-based) and process-based modelling.
Increased complexity in modern systems development requires specialist skills not usually available in forest companies. Because of these trends, existing industry growth and yield systems are a mix of old technologies and more modern additions, with their functionality constrained by legacy designs and limited capabilities.
This project offered the potential for growers to design and experience elements of a modern system akin to that available to grain growers and other agricultural sectors. This system would for the foreseeable future augment, rather than replace, existing growth and yield forecasting systems by incorporating process-based modelling capabilities and data from sensors.
The project also aimed to evaluate cooperative business models that could develop and sustain delivery of these advanced technical services to the forest plantation industry.
The project demonstrated elements of a proposed workflow for merging remotely sensed data with process-based modelling and current inventory and empirical modelling.
You can download the report at: https://fwpa.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/VNC519-1920-Final-Report_Next-Generation-Resource-Assessment.pdf
