Forestry

Forests play an essential role in today's society and serve as sources for producing paper products, lumber, and fuelwood. Also, forests make freshwater from mountain watersheds, purify the air, offer habitat to wildlife, and offer recreational opportunities, among many other ecosystem services. Balance ecological and recreational functions, accurate and precise information about forest structure and its biophysical parameters are needed to support informed decision-making and sustainable management.

Many natural resource managers and policymakers' decisions regarding forests are linked with the geospatial data covered by conventional forest inventory methods. Remote sensing data fills the existing forest monitoring information gaps, particularly in many developing countries. Through remote sensing, information retrieved through space- and airborne acquisition methods offer a synoptic view over large or inaccessible areas. The Forest Resources Assessment supports global tree cover and forest land use monitoring. Monitoring programs implement a systematic framework to obtain information about forest cover changes and forest land-use changes globally.

Carbon emissions are partially compensated by forest growth, forestation, and soil carbon pools' rebuilding following afforestation. However, the global distribution of terrestrial carbon sinks and sources is highly uncertain. Initiatives constraining forest carbon estimates inaccuracy is essential to developing new techniques and methodologies to support information needs of effective forest management and future climate mitigation actions.

Advances in close-range and remote sensing technologies drive innovations in forest resource assessments and monitoring at varying scales. Data acquired with airborne and spaceborne platforms provide us with higher spatial resolution, more frequent coverage, and increased spectral information. Recent developments in data include aerial photography, multi-spectral scanner (MSS), radar (Radio Detection and Ranging), Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) laser, and Videography have helped detect, identify, classify, evaluate, and measure various forest cover types and changes. Cloudeo supports its users in multiple areas of web and mobile applications, which include:

• Assessing and managing wildlife habitat
• Assessing slope failure and soil erosion
• Assessment of wind damage
• Assessment of climate change consequences as drought, bugs, and diseases
• Basal area growth estimation
• Biomass estimation
• Crown cover estimation
• Canopy density estimation
• Crown diameter measurement
• DBH estimation
• Dead declined trees
• Detecting deforestation and forest degradation
• Detecting forest roads
• Detecting forest trees health (vigor and stress)
• Evaluating and managing forest recreation resources
• Forest cover area measurement
• Forest fire detection
• Forest fire hazard
• Forest inventory
• Forest management
• Forest monitoring
• Forest roads planning
• Forest species level mapping
• Forest stands volume estimation
• Forest stands woody biomass estimation
• Forest tree species differentiation
• Forest trees diseases and insect’s infestation
• Forest trees nutrient deficiency
• Forest trees under air, soil, and water pollution
• Forest trees water stress detection
• Mapping trees spatial distribution
• Burned and flooded forest mapping/monitoring
• Monitoring logging activities
• Number of trees per unit area (density)
• Reforestation and afforestation monitoring
• Species composition
• Stand size
• Tree age estimation
• Trees annual growth estimation
• Thinning volume estimation
• Timber harvesting planning
• Timber volume estimation
• Tree height estimation and measurement
• Counting of trees in urban areas and plantations