Precision Forestry and Forest Health
A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Ecology and Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 April 2020) | Viewed by 320
Special Issue Editors
Interests: basic research on ecology; genetics; infection biology and impact of fungi pathogenic to trees; research and development to facilitate economically sustainable forest management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Precision forestry has been defined as planning and conducting site-specific forest management activities and operations to improve wood product quality and utilization, reduce waste, and increase profits, and maintain the quality of the environment. Precision forestry uses high technology sensing and analytical tools to support site-specific decision-making. Digital technology is revolutionizing industries around the world, from healthcare to manufacturing. With regard to the primary industries, agriculture is already undergoing enormous changes due to technologies that rely on digitalization, whereas forestry is lagging behind most other industries in the adoption of digital technology. This is finally starting to change, and precision forestry is envisaged to become a driver of the forest-based bioeconomy when we move away from the fossil-fuel economy. The key component that is characteristic to all forms of precision forestry is the use of geospatial technologies. With regard to tree diseases, techniques such as remote sensing, UAV and LIDAR are increasingly used for crown condition monitoring in relation to the evolution and scale of crown disease and pest epidemics, windbreaks, wildfire and drought. In situ sensors like Tree Talker (see e.g. https://www.cmcc.it/article/xylella-dalla-ricerca-cmcc-ecco-il-sensore-che-salvera-gli-ulivi-del-salento) and the modular environmental monitoring system Nature 4.0 (see e.g. https://www.uni-marburg.de/en/fb19/natur40/about-us/nature-4-0-in-a-nutshell) provide exciting novel solutions to assist in site-specific forest and plantation management and operations, such as early alerts for pests and disease outbreaks. With regard to ground-based observers, fitting harvester heads with global navigation satellite systems can for example be used to create a high-resolution map of the occurrence of wood decay pockets in a stand, information that enables the planning and implementation of management practices even at the single seedling level to reduce the extent of decay in the next tree generation.
The goal of this Special Issue is to provide an up-to-date compilation of representative case studies that make use of geospatial technologies in the detection and management of insect pests, pathogens and abiotic damage in forests and plantations.
We encourage studies from different fields, providing empirical information on the application of precision forestry technology on forest health issues. We also encourage studies contributing to improved risk assessment and efficient forest management to maximize tree resilience.
Dr. Ari M. Hietala
Dr. Nicola La Porta
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- precision forestry
- forestry 4.0
- forest protection
- forest health
- forest pathogens
- forest pests
- forest disturbances
- fire risk
- windbreak
- Urban greening
- Ornamental
