| Authors | Ehrlich-Sommer et al. |
| Country | Austria |
| Paper (PDF) | View paper |
| Category | Planning & Inventory › Remote sensing & mapping |
Sensors for Digital Transformation in Smart Forestry
Forest health monitoring sensors encompass a diverse range of hardware devices deployed across ground, aerial, and satellite platforms to continuously or periodically measure environmental and biological indicators of forest condition. Ground-based sensor networks include IoT-connected dendrometers that measure stem radial growth, sap flow sensors that track water use and drought stress, soil moisture probes, microclimate stations recording temperature and humidity within the canopy, and acoustic sensors designed to detect the feeding sounds of wood-boring insects or the ultrasonic emissions of stressed wood. These ground sensors are increasingly networked via low-power wide-area protocols such as LoRaWAN, allowing data to be transmitted from remote forest locations to cloud platforms for real-time analysis without the need for cellular coverage. Aerial sensor platforms include manned aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones) carrying multispectral cameras, hyperspectral imagers, thermal infrared cameras, and LiDAR units. Multispectral and hyperspectral sensors capture reflectance across wavelengths sensitive to chlorophyll content, water stress, and pigment changes, enabling early detection of pest damage or disease onset before visible symptoms are apparent. Thermal sensors identify elevated canopy temperatures associated with drought-induced stomatal closure or the heat signatures of wildfire ignition. Satellite-borne sensors — including those on Sentinel-2, Landsat 8/9, MODIS, and commercial constellations such as Planet Labs — provide synoptic, repeat-coverage observations that underpin landscape-scale health assessments. In the Australian context, sensors are deployed to monitor key threats including Phytophthora root rot in jarrah forests of Western Australia, myrtle rust in eastern rainforests, and the post-fire recovery trajectory of eucalypt forests affected by the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires, with data integrated into state and national early-warning dashboards.
A helpful monitoring solution that protects yield by identifying issues early, providing solid risk-reduction value for health and hazard detection.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Company | Ehrlich-Sommer et al. |
| Country | Austria |
| Type | Paper |
| FWPA RD&E | 7.4 |