¶ RS Services (forest inventory)
| Company | AECOM |
| Country | Canada |
| Website | https://aecom.com/en-ca/services/forestry-geomatics-and-remote-sensing/ |
| Category | Planning & Inventory › Remote sensing & mapping |
¶ Overview
Remote sensing services for forest inventory refer to the commercial and government-delivered data products, processing pipelines, and analytical services that use remotely sensed data to support the collection of forest inventory information — the systematic measurement of forest attributes such as species composition, stand height, stocking density, basal area, timber volume, and biomass — at operational scales. Traditional ground-based forest inventory using systematically sampled plots is accurate but expensive and slow, particularly over large forested estates; RS services allow remote sensing data to stratify the landscape, reduce required plot sampling intensity through model-based estimation, or in some cases replace ground sampling for attributes that can be estimated with sufficient accuracy from sensor data alone. Airborne laser scanning (ALS) has become the most widely used RS service for operational forest inventory, producing point clouds from which canopy height models, individual tree segmentations, and stand-level metrics are derived and used to predict timber volume and biomass via regression or machine learning models calibrated against ground plot measurements. Commercial ALS service providers in Australia include Fugro, AAM (Atteris), and various state government spatial data programs, with ALS now covering large areas of Australia's plantation and public native forest estate. Satellite-based RS inventory services using Sentinel-2, Landsat, and high-resolution commercial imagery supplement ALS where airborne coverage is absent or for frequent monitoring between ALS acquisition cycles. The integration of RS inventory services into national forest carbon accounting, particularly through Australia's Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) and the Emission Reduction Fund, has created a strong policy-driven demand for accurate and auditable RS-based forest stock estimates, further accelerating the development and uptake of commercial RS inventory services across Australian state and private forest management organisations.
¶ Assessment
A comprehensive suite that improves inventory and planning efficiency, with strong operational, environmental, and safety risk-reduction benefits from early detection and accurate mapping.
¶ Details
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Company | AECOM |
| Country | Canada |
| Type | Company |
| Available in AU? | yes, office in Brisbane |
| FWPA RD&E | 7.3 |