CA20118 - Three-dimensional forest ecosystem monitoring and better understanding by terrestrial-based technologies (3DForEcoTech)

Forest ecosystems across the world are facing high pressures due to climate changes. In many areas, they are in a transition to adopt the changes. However, many are damaged in this process. It is crucial to make forest ecosystems more resistant to face these challenges, through resilience strengthening and close-to-nature forestry. Implementing such approaches and monitoring their progress requires accurate knowledge about forest ecosystems that rely on a forest in situ data at high spatial and temporal resolution.

Novel terrestrial-based technologies will play an important part to face these challenges. Such technologies have experienced a fast development in recent years. The forests can now be observed and monitored in a very high spatial and temporal resolution that was not possible even a few years ago. Researchers and practitioners are facing a unique opportunity to deepen the understanding of forest ecosystems and to change the forestry to adopt the climate, environment and industrial changes. Various research groups across EU and beyond are testing such technologies or developing processing algorithms for precision forestry and forest ecology. But further cooperation is strongly required.

3DForEcoTech project aims to establish a strong network of scientists and stakeholders (i.e. practitioners) and sensor manufacturers to synchronise the knowledge, to develop general protocols and algorithms for forest ecosystem state survey and forest functioning, and to make these novel technologies available to a broad audience. Specifically, 3DForEcoTech will develop protocols for data acquisition, processing, fusion for forest inventory and ecological applications, and will establish open-data and open-source algorithm databases.