What was at the time the largest forestry remote sensing project is set to begin in October 2023. On behalf of Bayerische Staatsforsten AöR, the IT service provider Materna, together with a European consortium of partners with decades of experience in the forestry sector, will digitise almost the entire Bavarian state forest, comprising around 800,000 hectares of woodland. The aim of the ‘Forest Planning 4.0’ project is to use innovative, IT-supported forest management methods to create a comprehensive map of the forest stand, from which measures for a more sustainable and climate-resilient forest can be derived. The project will run for a total of nine years. Bavaria is the first federal state to digitise its forest management in such a comprehensive manner and is thus playing a pioneering role in Germany.
In the sub-project ‘Forest Planning 4.0 – Forest Management using Forest Remote Sensing’, Materna, as the main contractor, is working together with its consortium partners EFTAS Fernerkundung Technologietransfer GmbH, AVT Airborne Sensing GmbH and GI Geoinformatik, is developing a fully IT-supported remote sensing procedure for the Bavarian State Forests to carry out a comprehensive inventory of the Bavarian state-owned forests.
Using camera- and laser-based aerial imagery as well as satellite imagery, approximately 16 per cent of the Bavarian State Forests’ forest stock will be comprehensively digitally mapped during a development phase over the next three years. Including the subsequent routine operation, the mapping will be gradually extended to cover a total area of approximately 620,000 hectares of woodland. Using a particularly innovative laser-scanning method, even more detailed information on the composition, location and condition of the vegetation will be obtained than has been possible to date. The project participants will convert this information into innovative forestry products such as databases and visualisations, which can be used for preliminary stratification and the precise mapping of the age and species composition of the stands. State-of-the-art technologies such as AI are being used for this purpose, including in the event of storm damage, to obtain a data-driven, up-to-date picture of the situation. The result is a unique digital representation of the Bavarian State Forests, designed to ensure sustainability in the face of climate change and safeguard the forest’s long-term survival.
Materna is acting as the main contractor
The long-term “Forest Planning 4.0” project benefits from Materna’s end-to-end range of services. The IT service provider is responsible for the entire project, from data collection and processing, through the development of AI algorithms during the development phase and ensuring IT security, to service support for six years during the operational phase planned to begin at the end of 2026.
Vera Gebhardt, Project Manager and GIS Solution Manager at Materna: “A future-proof remote sensing method enables forest management processes to be organised effectively and economically. In doing so, we are further developing the field of geoinformation systems in conjunction with AI. Materna has been exploring for some time how data can be used to promote greater sustainability. We are committed to forest conservation through innovative digitalisation solutions in a number of projects.”
Materna is expanding its commitment to sustainable forests
Apart from the ‘Forest Planning 4.0’ forest inventory project, Materna is currently working on a research project aimed at making the value chain in forest management sustainable and climate-positive. In the CO2For-IT project, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Materna and several project partners are developing a federal data space for sustainability monitoring in the forestry and timber industry under the project management of the DLR. Based on the secure and trustworthy principles of the European Gaia-X initiative, more than 120,000 forestry stakeholders are being connected. The Forest Data Space enables cross-value-chain monitoring of CO₂ balances and provides the necessary data for developing strategies to tackle climate change. The project was officially launched on 1 May 2023 and is scheduled to run for three years.
