Technologies that boost the precision forestry industry

The forest industry, as defined by FAO, include all economic activities that mostly depend on the production of goods and services from forests. This is an industry that, in many cases, has been seen as destructive to the environment due to its relationship with the tree felling. However, in almost every country in the world with significant forest resources, it plays an essential role in socio-economic development.

According to the "Diagnosis of the Spanish Forestry Sector", published by the former Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment in 2014, Spain is the second EU country in forest area, only behind Sweden. However, the forest industry has a modest weight in Spain GDP (0.63% in 2009). That is, more than half a point below the European average, and below countries with equivalent forest resources. There are interesting studies such as "Characterization of forest industry" published by the BBVA Foundation in 2008 that seek to delve into the analysis of why the forestry industry has not had a higher development rate in Spain despite the size of the forestry ecosystems.

As we all know, we are living a stage of digital transformation in which technology is revolutionizing industries all over the world, from logistics to manufacturing, healthcare or financial sector. Even agriculture is living a great transformation due to a combination of technologies, including artificial intelligence and the enrichment of private and ultralocal data with open data. However, the forestry industry seems to be left behind most of the other industries in this transformation.

Inspired by successes in agriculture, some forest operators have begun to pioneer the use of advanced technologies to improve the results of forest management. This approach is known as precision forestry, clearly connected with the most advanced precision agriculture or smart agriculture.

The precision forestry industry starts to benefit from the application of a series of emerging technologies, such as the laser scanner (LIDAR) or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or drones. We are going to review some of this technologies that, according to some studies, are already beginning to produce productivity improvements of 5 - 25% per year.

• LIDARs, for example, are increasingly used to produce digital land models that allow, through data science techniques, to make estimates of available wood inventories (trees per hectare, tree height or log diameters). A more precise knowledge of the land, the water flows or the forest inventories contributes not only to better management of wood inventory but also to better plan a harvest. For example, analyzing very precise data to make better decisions about the type of machinery needed and its optimal placement to harvest a forest unit. Open data published by public administrations, for example related to the land cartography or the location of water resources, are fundamental to enrich the data captured by these techniques. For example, in Spain, the National Geographic Institute has published LiDAR data related to the entire territory. Some regions such as Castilla y León and Catalonia also provide data in this format. In the same way there are ambitious projects to add LIDAR-format data all around the world, such as Open Topography and Lidar online, although their coverage is still limited.
• Unmanned aerial vehicles are increasingly used in the forestry industry to perform surveillance and mapping tasks when they are equipped with the aforementioned LIDAR systems. In other cases, they can also be equipped with thermal cameras or other devices to detect outbreaks of pests and diseases or improve early warnings in case of fire. There are even experimental projects to use drones in simple forestry operations, such as planting seeds, fertilizing new plantations or fumigating weeds in areas that are not easily accessible.

There are, of course, other very interesting technologies, such as those to make possible the genetic selection and improvement of tree seeds to better adapt to the land and their use, or the robotization of felling, sowing or fertilization tasks. However, all have in common the need to manage high amounts of data and the possibility of enriching the information with open data to improve the analytical possibilities that allow to make better decisions. From the meteorological data published by the AEMET or the current Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries to the cartographic maps from the IGN, including forest inventories data from the Department of Rural Development, Innovation and Forestry Policy or the water resources from the Hydrographic Confederations. All of them are an important base to combine with the data captured by private means to improve innovation in the sector.

The pioneers of this revolution are obtaining advantages such as costs saving and higher production per forest unit. This second advantage is especially valuable in Western Europe where there is not many additional forest land available for new crops.

The digital transformation that forestry industry is living may represent a new opportunity for the development of this sector in Spain where there is an interesting combination of natural resources, capacities to adopt the technologies that enable this transformation and the availability of open data.

Content prepared by Jose Luis Marín, Head of Corporate Technology Startegy en MADISON MK and Euroalert CEO.

Contents and points of view expressed in this publication are the exclusive responsibility of its author.