Forest Inventory: Observations from a non-forester…
Over the past year or so, I’ve been working with my professional forester colleagues at Tesera (note: I am not a forester) and learning about how forest inventories are typically done today — and it’s been a rather surprising and revealing journey.
Wikipedia describes a forest inventory as:
Forest inventory is the systematic collection of data and forest information for assessment or analysis. An estimate of the value and possible uses of timber is an important part of the broader information required to sustain ecosystems.
In the first sentence, the term systematic is used suggesting that the inventory is conducted according to a fixed plan or system. If we look at British Columbia, indeed forest inventory methodologies have evolved over the decades with significant changes every 10–40 years (A Historical Summary of Forest Inventory Sampling Designs in British Columbia, 1992). And from all accounts, today the Ministry is exploring the next evolution in methodology to replace the previous inventories from the 90’s and early 2000's.
This next iteration presumably will take into account advancements and availability in technologies like LiDAR, frequently updated remote sensed data coming online from companies like Urthecast, and the power of spatial data analytics from companies like Tesera where tools are deployed in the cloud using Amazon Web Services and Safe FME to generate high resolution inventories over large areas with accuracy and reliability, in a fraction of the time.
It is safe to say that forest inventories will look a lot different in the coming years — and as beneficiaries to the assets of the forest…we’re all better for it!
Although how this next iteration will unfold is not yet clear, what is clear is that forest inventory systems are becoming increasingly powerful with the potential of significantly better data and information about the forest, enabling better management of forest assets.
Further in the middle, the word estimate appears, which is important because it reminds us that this is an approximation of the forest…at a given time.
What’s exciting is that today, with increasing availability of data at higher resolution coupled with powerful cloud spatial data analytic tools, the estimation of the forest is becoming radically more accurate and reliable than what is possible with air photos and human interpretation. Combine that with frequent data acquisition and a forest inventory can conceivably approach “near real-time” status — where a forest inventory is updated annually, monthly, even daily as required.
Contrast that with many of today’s forest inventories that have less accuracy and reliability and in many cases only get updated every decade or so. One may beg the question — how can a forest manager manage a forest with information that can be a decade out of date?
It would be like Walmart trying to manage product on their store shelves (i.e. the “mill”) having little to no idea what is in their warehouse or which warehouse might have the product they need to restock a shelf. Worse than that, they also don’t know if that product is in any warehouse and/or whether they may need to wait for it to be built and shipped (i.e. planted and grown into a size to harvest).
For forestry companies, this has meant not relying on or trusting their forest inventory and instead sending humans out into the forest (i.e. the “warehouse”) to see if the trees they need indeed exist. And if not, go searching somewhere else in the forest in the hope of finding them— I know this seems archaic but this is still the reality for many organizations today!
Finally, the “…important part of the broader information required to sustain ecosystems.” part points to the long term vision of forest inventory.
A number of trends are converging that are leading to improved broader information required to sustain ecosystems:
- Remote-sensed data is becoming more widely available and cheaper.
- Computer processing power is becoming more widely available and cheaper.
Combine these 2 trends and forest inventory is getting more accurate, reliable, and available at a higher resolution…and available for larger areas, faster. And with these trends continuing, one can only imagine how managers can efficiently and effectively manage forests today and in the future.
In my forest inventory journey so far, I have learned that current forest inventory practices are based upon nearly a century of photo interpretation by humans and the methodology is primed to take advantage of the growing wealth of remote sensed data available at declining costs, combined with the growing power of data analytics to reveal more and more information about the forest.
It is safe to say that forest inventories will look a lot different in the coming years — and as beneficiaries to the assets of the forest…we’re all better for it!
Read more about Tesera’s approach to high resolution forest inventory.
Alex Joseph, M.E.Des., MBA, is Director of Sustainable Solutions at Tesera.com
