Personalized scanning system for sustainable forest management

I Tracklogger prosjektet testes og videreutvikles et laserskannings system montert på en ryggsekk som et målevektøy for bærekraftig skogforvaltning. Mer spesifikt gjennomfører prosjektet laserskanninger av: (1) kjøreskader på jordsmonnen etter hogst, (2) skader på stier og spor etter rekreasjons aktivitet som terrengsykling, og (3) skogtaksering. De fleste eksiterende personlige laserskanning systemer er for kostbare for bruk i operasjonell skogbruk. Skannersystemet som testes og utvikles i Tracklogger er et rimelig system der potentielt kan utnyttes i operasjonelle skogbruk.

In the TrackLogger proposal we will further develop and test the OnTrack backpack as a personalized scanner system for field assesments for three key aplication cases central to sustainable forest management: (1) post-harvest soil disturbance, (2) trail damage due to recreation activities such as hiking and mountain biking, and (3) forest inventory. Most personalized scanning systems are very expensive as they are developed for more cost intensive fields than forestry but the TrackLogger will be a low cost, yet robust and precise system. Application case 1: Post harvest soil disturbance is a major sustainability challenge for the forest sector and current field based measurements are fully manual which makes them costly, time consuming and hence rarely carried out at a large scale. We will test the TrackLogger backpack in tough field conditions for soil disturbance following harvest. Application case 2: Trail monitoring is an important part of forest management in forest with intensive recreational use. There is a large scientific literature on approaches for trail monitoring but it is normally carried out by manual labor intensive measurements. We wish to test the backpack for trail monitoring by improving the algorithms and carry out an field test. Application case 3: Forest inventory. Use of mobile and personalized laser scanning systems are currently an actitive research field at the frontier of forest inventory reseach. So far some tests of mobile and personalized scanning have been carried out but generally with very expensive scanning systems. We wish to test the backpack for forest inventory by repeating the experiemental setups perviously carried out with much more expensive and complex mobile laser scanning systems.