My Sustainable Forest participates at the 21st International Wood Symposium in Freiburg, Germany
Last September, My Sustainable Forest project took part in the 21st International Non-destructive Testing and Evaluation of Wood Symposium in Freigburg, Germany, offering a session entitled “Remote sensing technologies as proxy forecast of wood technological properties”. Esther Merlo, CEO of Madera Plus, gave the presentation and explained to attendees the potential of remote sensing technologies to improve the competitiveness of the forest industry.
During the session, a special emphasis was placed on the products about wood density and wood stiffness that Madera Plus is developing within the My Sustainable Forest services’ portfolio. These products that are being developed, and whose preliminary results were presented at the event, aim to highlight the attributes of wood fibre to optimise its use (pulp performance, strength and rigidity of the wood) as well as its density as these are important aspects for the pulp industry.
Esther Merlo pointed out the importance of betting on remote sensing methods to establish better strategic decisions within the forest industry before felling trees, as well as the necessary optimisation of the profitability of the forest wood chain. In addition, she stressed that My Sustainable Forest project and its services will facilitate the transformation of the sector towards more efficient planning and more sustainable forest management.
Using satellite images, LiDAR data as well as climate and physiographic information can help optimise the sustainable management and exploitation of forest resources. In the case of My Sustainable Forest, our partner Madera Plus is modelling and mapping the attributes of Eucalyptus Globulus wood fibre based on parameters derived from Earth Observation (satellite data) and climatic and physiographic data. The ultimate goal of this task is providing the wood industry and forest owners with products that allow predicting the density and stiffness of specific forest stands of this tree species.
The session demonstrated that My Sustainable Forest’s H2020 initiative provides advanced, innovative and flexible services to users with the aim of improving their forest operations, with an unprecedented potential for forestry.