Mountainous forests comprise some of Europe’s most stunning, yet inaccessible landscape. Although forests represent a key resource of mountain environments, their valorisation is hampered by accessibility constraints. A comprehensive understanding of such remote terrain via an efficient mapping, management, harvesting and transport of wood products, is thus integral to their exploitation as timber resources. Forests fulfil multiple functions in mountainous areas. They have an ecological function as host of many habitats and species. They also are a leisure area for social activities such as hiking, skiing… From the economical perspective, the production of renewable resources like timber and fuelwood has positive effects both at global scale, with climate change mitigation, and at a local scale with rural employment and the development of a regional value chain. The objective of preserving and improving the development of mountain forests is a point of public interest. However, managing forests in mountain territories is a difficult task as topography and climate set strong constraints inside a complex socio-economical framework. In particular, a precise mapping of forest biomass characteristics and mobilization conditions (harvesting and accessibility) is a prerequisite for the implementation of an efficient supply chain for the wood industry. Usually, the available information is currently insufficient to provide, at reasonable costs, the required guarantees on the wood supply and on its sustainability. With the recent development of new remote sensing technologies, such as Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR), and modelling tools based on the use of Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and implemented in Geographical Information Systems (GIS), major improvements regarding the evaluation of the forest growing stock and accessibility are now possible. Upon this highly valuable information, decision-making tools must be built to optimize the investments in forest infrastructures required for a cost-effective wood supply while securing the sustainable management of forests, and to support the implementation of an efficient European policy for mountain forest management. This is one of the Alpine Space Programme’s aims, which seeks "to overcome the disadvantages of location factors and to promote the Alpine Space as a dynamic economic region in Europe". In order to propose adapted, efficient and pragmatic responses to this technical and economical context, the project NEWFOR (NEW technologies for a better mountain FORest timber mobilization) was built up by a consortium including researchers and managers from the 6 alpine space countries. The NEWFOR consortium was composed of 14 institutes. The key aim of this project was the improvement of mountain forest accessibility for a better efficiency of wood harvesting and transport in a context of sustainable forest management and wood industry in changing climate. This general objective has been fulfilled by creating, testing and transferring adaptable, robust support decision making tools dedicated to mountain forests management. Four operational objectives have been fixed and reached after the 3 years duration of the project NEWFOR: 1. Sharing of knowledge and development of tools regarding the use of an innovative remote sensing technology (LiDAR: aerial and terrestrial laser scanning) for forest growing stock location, characterization and evaluation of mobilization conditions. 2. Sharing of knowledge and development of tools for the optimization of timber harvesting and transport from the technical and economical points of view. 3. Identification of actions and tools requirements at regional and local level. 4. Development of methodology and tools, in cooperation with political decision makers at regional level, dedicated to improve the connectivity between forest resources and wood industries.

Forest Logistic Planning Strategies. Good practices for the Alpine forests.

Matteo Garbarino;Fabio Meloni;Renzo Motta;Emanuele Sibona;
2014-01-01

Abstract

Mountainous forests comprise some of Europe’s most stunning, yet inaccessible landscape. Although forests represent a key resource of mountain environments, their valorisation is hampered by accessibility constraints. A comprehensive understanding of such remote terrain via an efficient mapping, management, harvesting and transport of wood products, is thus integral to their exploitation as timber resources. Forests fulfil multiple functions in mountainous areas. They have an ecological function as host of many habitats and species. They also are a leisure area for social activities such as hiking, skiing… From the economical perspective, the production of renewable resources like timber and fuelwood has positive effects both at global scale, with climate change mitigation, and at a local scale with rural employment and the development of a regional value chain. The objective of preserving and improving the development of mountain forests is a point of public interest. However, managing forests in mountain territories is a difficult task as topography and climate set strong constraints inside a complex socio-economical framework. In particular, a precise mapping of forest biomass characteristics and mobilization conditions (harvesting and accessibility) is a prerequisite for the implementation of an efficient supply chain for the wood industry. Usually, the available information is currently insufficient to provide, at reasonable costs, the required guarantees on the wood supply and on its sustainability. With the recent development of new remote sensing technologies, such as Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR), and modelling tools based on the use of Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and implemented in Geographical Information Systems (GIS), major improvements regarding the evaluation of the forest growing stock and accessibility are now possible. Upon this highly valuable information, decision-making tools must be built to optimize the investments in forest infrastructures required for a cost-effective wood supply while securing the sustainable management of forests, and to support the implementation of an efficient European policy for mountain forest management. This is one of the Alpine Space Programme’s aims, which seeks "to overcome the disadvantages of location factors and to promote the Alpine Space as a dynamic economic region in Europe". In order to propose adapted, efficient and pragmatic responses to this technical and economical context, the project NEWFOR (NEW technologies for a better mountain FORest timber mobilization) was built up by a consortium including researchers and managers from the 6 alpine space countries. The NEWFOR consortium was composed of 14 institutes. The key aim of this project was the improvement of mountain forest accessibility for a better efficiency of wood harvesting and transport in a context of sustainable forest management and wood industry in changing climate. This general objective has been fulfilled by creating, testing and transferring adaptable, robust support decision making tools dedicated to mountain forests management. Four operational objectives have been fixed and reached after the 3 years duration of the project NEWFOR: 1. Sharing of knowledge and development of tools regarding the use of an innovative remote sensing technology (LiDAR: aerial and terrestrial laser scanning) for forest growing stock location, characterization and evaluation of mobilization conditions. 2. Sharing of knowledge and development of tools for the optimization of timber harvesting and transport from the technical and economical points of view. 3. Identification of actions and tools requirements at regional and local level. 4. Development of methodology and tools, in cooperation with political decision makers at regional level, dedicated to improve the connectivity between forest resources and wood industries.
2014
1
111
http://www.newfor.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Newfor_Handbook.pdf
LiDAR, Forestry, Forest Management, GIS
Frédéric Berger, Sylvain Dupire, Jean-Matthieu Monnet, Elisabeth Hainzer, Dieter Stoehr, Nikolaus Nemestóthy, Bernadette Sotier, Thomas Lerch, Bernhard Maier, Bruna Comini, Paolo Nastasio, Alessandro Vitali, Paola Comin, Damiano Fedel, Alessandro Wolinski, Thomas Carrette, Stéphane Grulois, Paul Magaud, Jaka Klun, Milan Kobal, Nike Krajnc, Matevž Triplat, Franz Binder, Burkhard Maier, Matteo Garbarino, Fabio Meloni, Renzo Motta, Emanuele Sibona, Stefano Grigolato, Emanuele Lingua, Niccolò Marchi, Marco Pellegrini, Francesco Pirotti, Lothar Eysn (TU-Wien), Markus Hollaus, Jurij Beguš, Andrej Grum, Luka Rebolj
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1663783
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