GIS Applications in Forestry

Application domain

Forest management has become more complex because of the fact that there are many multiple objectives to fulfil as well as multiple and demanding criteria and constraint to address.
This makes the spatial technologies are well suited for applications to cope with forest management issues. The GIS technology is a very valuable tool not only in decision-making but also in forest planning and forest management.

Case Study Objectives

The ultimate goal of this course is to bridge the gap between academic institutions and private sector regarding the GIS applications in Forestry, in order to provide students both with the theoretical background and real-case experience and management. The scope of this case study, is, by creating a well-structured graduate / postgraduate course, to introduce the GIS tools that can be used in forest management.

Provision of training/education
Learning material will be implemented within Forestry MSc Programme (2 ECTS) offered by University of West Hungary as an individual test course.

Learning contents CS6

Forestry GIS database
Forest Mapping & data collection
LIDAR based timber volume estimation
Climate change
Multiobjective forest management
Forest Fire Risk mapping
Forest Fire Monitoring
Forest Fire Simulation

Learning outcomes
After completion of the course the students will be familiar with GIS applications in Forestry and they will be able to:

Prepare thematic maps for decision makers
Develop a critical awareness of forest management from a multidisciplinary perspective
Use complex tools and methods serving at the real world fire cases
Be able to conduct geospatial analysis and simulation of forest fire events

The outcomes of this procedure are not only student related, but are also expected to benefit the rest of the actors involved from
the academic and private field.

Reference partners

Nyugat-Magyaroszági Egyetem (Hungary)
Epsilon International SA (Greece)

Available training material

The available training material is based on real cases and provide paradigms and data for three main areas in Forestry such as, Forest Risk Mapping, Forest Fire monitoring and Forest Fire simulation.
Its educational significance is considered of high importance and a strategic approach for delivering education and training resources for students in this field has been followed. Following this course is important in developing a more structured career path for forestry operatives , improve their skills and understanding of forest fires behaviour, while helping them to understand the needed training paths in order to be prepared for more complex analysis and use of various geodata sets.
Using the provided educational and training materials, the basic steps of developing a forestry geodatabase appropriate for further analysis and production, as well as the use of satellite image data and forest fire simulation techniques become gradually familiar to the student and help to formulate and test the steps needed for preparing the materials needed for supporting field operations and for executing real time forest fire simulations.

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