Key message This study details a methodology to automatically detect the positions of and dasomet... more Key message This study details a methodology to automatically detect the positions of and dasometric information about individual Eucalyptus trees from a point cloud acquired with a portable LiDAR system. Abstract Currently, the implementation of portable laser scanners (PLS) in forest inventories is being studied, since they allow for significantly reduced field-work time and costs when compared to the traditional inventory methods and other LiDAR systems. However, it has been shown that their operability and efficiency are dependent upon the species assessed, and therefore, there is a need for more research assessing different types of stands and species. Additionally, a few studies have been conducted in Eucalyptus stands, one of the tree genus that is most commonly planted around the world. In this study, a PLS system was tested in a Eucalyptus globulus stand to obtain different metrics of individual trees. An automatic methodology to obtain inventory data (individual tree posit...
Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research
Up-to-date knowledge about changes in forest resources and their spatial distribution is essentia... more Up-to-date knowledge about changes in forest resources and their spatial distribution is essential for sustainable forest management. Therefore, monitoring of forest evolution is increasingly demanded by national and international agencies to design forestry policies and to track their progress. Annually updated land cover maps based on open access satellite imagery may serve as a primary tool for monitoring forest surface evolution over time. Spatially detailed information about forest change might be obtained by comparing land cover maps over time. This study aims to better understand the processes underlying pixels whose land cover changes from 1 year’s map to the next and to understand why errors occur. In this study, two annual land cover maps were produced using Sentinel-2 images and afterwards they were compared. The comparison was performed in terms of total surface occupied in each map by each of the classes (net comparison) and in terms of spatial agreement, comparing the ...
Throughout history, the use of animals for agricultural and forestry work has been closely associ... more Throughout history, the use of animals for agricultural and forestry work has been closely associated with human societies, with multiple references to animal power being utilized for various tasks since the Neolithic period. However, the advent of industrialization has fundamentally transformed the reality of society, leading to a significant shift towards the mechanization of processes. Despite this, animal traction continues to play an important role as a workforce in many developing countries and developed nations, where there is a renewed interest in the use of animal traction, particularly for tasks intended to have a reduced environmental impact and a smaller carbon footprint. The present study conducted a SWOT analysis to examine the potential of animal traction as an alternative for the recovery processes of forest residual woody biomass, particularly when the use of mechanical equipment is not feasible. This can contribute to the creation of value chains for residual produ...
The ROSEWOOD4.0 project has developed different roadmaps addressing stakeholders throughout Europ... more The ROSEWOOD4.0 project has developed different roadmaps addressing stakeholders throughout Europe for facilitating the transfer of knowledge and collaboration between partnership regions. The main objective of the roadmaps on Hub level is to strengthen the regions through transfer of the gathered knowledge, experiences and circumstances. The roadmap presented here represents the collection, the analysis and strategic direction of the results from the South-Western Hub including their validation.
Monitoring forest disturbances has become essential towards the design and tracking of sustainabl... more Monitoring forest disturbances has become essential towards the design and tracking of sustainable forest management. Multiple methodologies have been developed to detect these disturbances. However, few studies have focused on the automatic detection of disturbance drivers, an essential task as each disturbance has different implications for the functioning of the ecosystem and associated management actions. Wildfires and harvesting are two of the major drivers of forest disturbances across different ecosystems. In this study, an automated methodology is presented to automatically distinguish between the two once the disturbance is detected, using the properties of its geometry and shape. A cluster analysis was performed to automatically individualize each disturbance and afterwards calculate its geometric properties. Using these properties, a decision tree was built that allowed for the distinction between wildfires and harvesting with an overall accuracy of 91%. This methodology ...
Over the last several decades, thanks to improvements in and the diversification of open-access s... more Over the last several decades, thanks to improvements in and the diversification of open-access satellite imagery, land cover mapping techniques have evolved significantly. Notable changes in these techniques involve the automation of different steps, yielding promising results in terms of accuracy, class detection and efficiency. The most successful methodologies that have arisen rely on the use of multi-temporal data. Several different approaches have proven successful. In this study, one of the most recently developed methodologies is tested in the region of Galicia (in Northwestern Spain), with the aim of filling gaps in the mapping needs of the Galician forestry sector. The methodology mainly consists of performing a supervised classification of individual images from a selected time series and then combining them through aggregation using decision criteria. Several of the steps of the methodology can be addressed in multiple ways: pixel resolution selection, classification mod...
The stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) has thick bark as an adaptation to wildfire. In this study, labor... more The stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) has thick bark as an adaptation to wildfire. In this study, laboratory tests were carried out to quantify the influence of bark thickness on flammability and fire resistance in this species. Heating rate in the cambium and the time to reach lethal temperatures in living tissues were determined using a mass loss calorimeter. In addition, data from permanent plots were used to generate linear mixed models to predict bark thickness along the trunk in stone pine stands. The combination of laboratory and field data provided information about the critical threshold of bark thickness (2cm) below which the heat transmission rate would increase, decreasing the time to reach lethal temperatures in the cambium and therefore the resistance to fire. A new model was developed to calculate critical thresholds of charring height that guarantee efficient protection from fire along the trunk. Predicting whether the bark is thick enough to help trees survive may have im...
Key message This study details a methodology to automatically detect the positions of and dasomet... more Key message This study details a methodology to automatically detect the positions of and dasometric information about individual Eucalyptus trees from a point cloud acquired with a portable LiDAR system. Abstract Currently, the implementation of portable laser scanners (PLS) in forest inventories is being studied, since they allow for significantly reduced field-work time and costs when compared to the traditional inventory methods and other LiDAR systems. However, it has been shown that their operability and efficiency are dependent upon the species assessed, and therefore, there is a need for more research assessing different types of stands and species. Additionally, a few studies have been conducted in Eucalyptus stands, one of the tree genus that is most commonly planted around the world. In this study, a PLS system was tested in a Eucalyptus globulus stand to obtain different metrics of individual trees. An automatic methodology to obtain inventory data (individual tree posit...
Forestry: An International Journal of Forest Research
Up-to-date knowledge about changes in forest resources and their spatial distribution is essentia... more Up-to-date knowledge about changes in forest resources and their spatial distribution is essential for sustainable forest management. Therefore, monitoring of forest evolution is increasingly demanded by national and international agencies to design forestry policies and to track their progress. Annually updated land cover maps based on open access satellite imagery may serve as a primary tool for monitoring forest surface evolution over time. Spatially detailed information about forest change might be obtained by comparing land cover maps over time. This study aims to better understand the processes underlying pixels whose land cover changes from 1 year’s map to the next and to understand why errors occur. In this study, two annual land cover maps were produced using Sentinel-2 images and afterwards they were compared. The comparison was performed in terms of total surface occupied in each map by each of the classes (net comparison) and in terms of spatial agreement, comparing the ...
Throughout history, the use of animals for agricultural and forestry work has been closely associ... more Throughout history, the use of animals for agricultural and forestry work has been closely associated with human societies, with multiple references to animal power being utilized for various tasks since the Neolithic period. However, the advent of industrialization has fundamentally transformed the reality of society, leading to a significant shift towards the mechanization of processes. Despite this, animal traction continues to play an important role as a workforce in many developing countries and developed nations, where there is a renewed interest in the use of animal traction, particularly for tasks intended to have a reduced environmental impact and a smaller carbon footprint. The present study conducted a SWOT analysis to examine the potential of animal traction as an alternative for the recovery processes of forest residual woody biomass, particularly when the use of mechanical equipment is not feasible. This can contribute to the creation of value chains for residual produ...
The ROSEWOOD4.0 project has developed different roadmaps addressing stakeholders throughout Europ... more The ROSEWOOD4.0 project has developed different roadmaps addressing stakeholders throughout Europe for facilitating the transfer of knowledge and collaboration between partnership regions. The main objective of the roadmaps on Hub level is to strengthen the regions through transfer of the gathered knowledge, experiences and circumstances. The roadmap presented here represents the collection, the analysis and strategic direction of the results from the South-Western Hub including their validation.
Monitoring forest disturbances has become essential towards the design and tracking of sustainabl... more Monitoring forest disturbances has become essential towards the design and tracking of sustainable forest management. Multiple methodologies have been developed to detect these disturbances. However, few studies have focused on the automatic detection of disturbance drivers, an essential task as each disturbance has different implications for the functioning of the ecosystem and associated management actions. Wildfires and harvesting are two of the major drivers of forest disturbances across different ecosystems. In this study, an automated methodology is presented to automatically distinguish between the two once the disturbance is detected, using the properties of its geometry and shape. A cluster analysis was performed to automatically individualize each disturbance and afterwards calculate its geometric properties. Using these properties, a decision tree was built that allowed for the distinction between wildfires and harvesting with an overall accuracy of 91%. This methodology ...
Over the last several decades, thanks to improvements in and the diversification of open-access s... more Over the last several decades, thanks to improvements in and the diversification of open-access satellite imagery, land cover mapping techniques have evolved significantly. Notable changes in these techniques involve the automation of different steps, yielding promising results in terms of accuracy, class detection and efficiency. The most successful methodologies that have arisen rely on the use of multi-temporal data. Several different approaches have proven successful. In this study, one of the most recently developed methodologies is tested in the region of Galicia (in Northwestern Spain), with the aim of filling gaps in the mapping needs of the Galician forestry sector. The methodology mainly consists of performing a supervised classification of individual images from a selected time series and then combining them through aggregation using decision criteria. Several of the steps of the methodology can be addressed in multiple ways: pixel resolution selection, classification mod...
The stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) has thick bark as an adaptation to wildfire. In this study, labor... more The stone pine (Pinus pinea L.) has thick bark as an adaptation to wildfire. In this study, laboratory tests were carried out to quantify the influence of bark thickness on flammability and fire resistance in this species. Heating rate in the cambium and the time to reach lethal temperatures in living tissues were determined using a mass loss calorimeter. In addition, data from permanent plots were used to generate linear mixed models to predict bark thickness along the trunk in stone pine stands. The combination of laboratory and field data provided information about the critical threshold of bark thickness (2cm) below which the heat transmission rate would increase, decreasing the time to reach lethal temperatures in the cambium and therefore the resistance to fire. A new model was developed to calculate critical thresholds of charring height that guarantee efficient protection from fire along the trunk. Predicting whether the bark is thick enough to help trees survive may have im...
Los grandes incendios forestales constituyen una creciente amenaza global. En España, cada vez co... more Los grandes incendios forestales constituyen una creciente amenaza global. En España, cada vez con más frecuencia se dan las condiciones para que se produzcan episodios de simultaneidad, con importantes daños sociales, ambientales y económicos. Este verano del 2022 pasará a la historia como uno de los más negros y devastadores: hasta el 21 de agosto, se han quemado en España 294.865 hectáreas (EFFIS - European Forest Fire Information System), un 480 % de lo que se quemó de media durante el mismo periodo en los últimos 10 años. Además, se han producido 52 GIF (esto es Grandes Incendios Forestales, aquellos de más de 500 ha), cuando de media, en todo un año se producen unos 20. La actual política de extinción se muestra claramente insuficiente para poner freno a los incendios extremos. Las administraciones públicas deben promover la prevención a escala paisaje, poner en valor usos forestales y agrarios en extensivo en las zonas rurales, reducir la actual siniestralidad e impunidad y combatir el cambio climático. Esta gestión debe incluir, a su vez, la reintroducción del fuego en los ecosistemas de manera planificada, a través de quemas con prescripción técnica, para permitir que resulten fuegos de media y baja severidad, evitando los de alta intensidad. El uso del fuego prescrito permite garantizar las contribuciones positivas del fuego, como la reducción de la competencia de especies o el control de plagas y enfermedades, y minimizaría los impactos socioeconómicos.
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