The EU Forest Strategy, a flagship in the European Green Deal and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, is essential for achieving the EU’s biodiversity and achieving a 55 % emission reduction by 2030, aiming for climate neutrality by 2050. The strategy supports small-scale sustainable forest management to boost the bioeconomy and forest resilience. However, European forests face significant threats, including storms, fires, drought, pests, and disease.
Digital technologies, especially AI and geospatial tools, offer solutions for precision forestry, helping to monitor tree health, manage biodiversity, and optimize ecosystem services like timber production and carbon storage. Advanced machinery, data systems, and traceability at sawmills are crucial for maximizing resource use and meeting climate and sustainability goals.
To address this challenge, SingleTree project aims to create a smarter forestry system by focusing on individual trees. This approach will help forests adapt to climate change, become more resilient, and allow for more sustainable use of wood resources.
SingleTree will develop advanced methods to monitor forests based on artificial intelligence and remote sensing, adaptive single-tree level management solutions, intelligent machines for implementing single-tree operations, and improved traceability and ability to predict wood quality early in the value chain as a foundation for optimised biomass supply.
To develop optimized single-tree value chains for improved climate change adaptation, multifunctionality and cascading use of woody biomass, SingleTree project aims to:
To test and demonstrate these innovations, SingleTree will set up “Living Labs” in forests across northern, central, and southern Europe. These sites will serve as real-world testing grounds where the new methods can be trialed and evaluated in diverse forest conditions. This connected, digital approach will support Europe’s forest strategy by promoting a more sustainable and efficient way to manage forests.
SingleTree’s three LLVCs are selected to represent a broad and diverse range of ecosystem and socioeconomic conditions throughout Europe, each with important key settings being relevant to achieve the aims of the EU Forest Strategy and having a large upscaling potential.
The SingleTree project aims to improve forest management practices and enhance environmental sustainability while fostering local engagement and innovation. It focuses on understanding forest biodiversity, climate change impacts, and optimizing quality control through advanced data collection and remote sensing. By mapping biodiversity during harvesting and assessing tree quality non-invasively, SingleTree seeks to create climate-smart and resource-efficient management solutions.
The project also emphasizes the efficient use of biomass in regional industries by aligning supply and demand and promoting circular economy principles. By engaging various stakeholders, it aims to enhance collaboration within industrial ecosystems, resulting in minimized waste and improved recycling efforts.
Additionally, SingleTree promotes innovation among local communities, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), through a co-creation model that facilitates acceptance and prototyping of sustainable value chains. This collaborative approach aims to create better job opportunities and enhance living conditions in rural areas by optimizing forest resources and appreciating biodiversity.
The project aligns with the strategic priorities of the CBE JU SRIA, supporting the European Green Deal and Bioeconomy Strategy. By focusing on multifunctional forest management and digital technologies, SingleTree provides a pathway toward a circular economy and bioeconomy. It seeks to ensure the sustainable use of natural resources, enhance carbon sequestration, and improve biodiversity, all while promoting fair transitions based on rural resources and unlocking the potential of the circular economy for regional development.
NIBIO, SingleTree’s coordinating partner, is a leading forest research institute with a strong H2020 and Horizon Europe track record. As a forest innovation hub, NIBIO excels in digitalization and AI, utilizing a broad network across research, industry, and policy to develop novel AI solutions for forest vision and enhance SingleTree’s adaptive single-tree management through intelligent machines.
The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is a leading university responsible for the development of learning and expertise in areas concerning biological resources and biomaterial production. SLU is a leader in improving information on wood properties as a basis for optimizing the value and cascading use of all qualities of biomass.
The University of Eastern Finland (UEF) engages in responsible and impactful collaboration in both education and research. It contributes to global and local development, provides tailored services to meet the needs of its partners, and makes science accessible to the public through inclusive science events.
In the SingleTree project, the UEF team leads efforts in Adaptive Management and the Development and Testing of Risk Assessment and Management Solutions at the single-tree level. The team also contributes to Single-tree Monitoring, Digitally-enabled Operations, Enhancing Wood Quality for Value Creation, and Integrated Value Chains.
The Instituto Universitario de investigación en Gestión Forestal Sostenible (iuFOR) of the University of Valladolid (UVa) is dedicated to Forest Science, Sustainable Ecosystem Management and Natural Resources.
In the SingleTree project, the iuFOR-UVa team will work in Living Lab South and bring extensive knowledge on adaptive single tree management, especially in Mediterranean mixed forests. Further, the team will bring wide-ranging experience in proximal sensing technologies focused on Single tree monitoring for biodiversity and outer wood quality features.
The Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI), part of the National Land Survey of Finland, is an international research organization with about 120 staff members. FGI conducts research in geodesy, navigation, cartography, GIS, photogrammetry, and remote sensing, and applies this knowledge to society. Within the SingleTree project, FGI leads single-tree monitoring, benchmarking mobile laser scanning solutions against airship data. The team is developing AI methods for analyzing laser scanning data to assess tree health, in collaboration with tree health solution companies. FGI also works with NIBIO to develop a real-time perception system for harvesters.
SCA is Europe’s largest private forest owner, managing 2.7 million hectares of land in Northern Sweden and the Baltic States. At the core of its business is a well-developed value chain built around this vast renewable resource, designed to maximize the value of each tree. As the coordinator of Living Lab North, SCA contributes data and expertise while evaluating and implementing new tools in its operations.
Creative Optimization is a privately held company based in Sweden, founded by leading experts in optimization and forestry. Creative Optimization develops cutting-edge decision support tools related to wood supply logistics and forest operations, committed to bridge the gap between advanced research and practical application. Leveraging vast experience and expertise, Creative Optimization today has multiple products on the market, in several geographies, including Woodflow, Timbertrail and Loglanding. Woodflow is aimed at maximizing the value along the entire value chain, from standing forest to mill, and will be used at several levels in the SingleTree project in the different tasks in which Creative Optimization is involved. Woodflow has been widely adopted by major corporate actors in the forest industry, as well as for research and educational purposes, and is being continuously developed to meet evolving to industry needs and explore new applications of its technology.
Kelluu is a Finnish company revolutionizing aerial monitoring. It provides broad-scale continuous monitoring using beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone airships. For SingleTree, Kelluu collects and delivers highly accurate data for single-tree level identification.
KOKO Forest develops advanced computer vision algorithms for detecting climate-based risks to forests and forest ecology. The role of KOKO Forest within SingleTree is to build upon its existing methods for detecting tree mortality at the individual tree level using high-resolution imagery and to provide tree mortality analysis for the SingleTree Living Lab areas.
The Cesefor Foundation is a private non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the forestry sector through research, innovation, and sustainability, prioritizing natural resource conservation. It delivers targeted solutions for the forestry and environmental sectors, especially in resin production. As project coordinator, Cesefor contributes technical expertise in mechanization, resin stimulation, forest modeling, demonstration activities, and result dissemination. As the coordinator of the Southern Europe Living Lab Value Chain, Cesefor aims to boost digitalization in the forestry industry. The initiative promotes individual tree management to enhance multifunctionality and climate resilience. Involving a diverse range of stakeholders, from industries to landowners, throughout the development and testing phases ensures broad acceptance of the methodology.
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) is Norway’s largest university, headquartered in Trondheim. NTNU has a primary focus on science and technology but also offers a broad academic spectrum, including the humanities, social sciences, economics, medicine, and the arts. In SingleTree, our main responsibility is to develop and conduct life cycle assessments applicable to the range of wood products from the living lab value chains.
The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) focuses on the sustainable use, development, and protection of natural and urban spaces, especially in mountainous regions. It leads research on landscape management, forest ecosystems, and natural hazards such as rockfalls and debris flows. WSL maintains over 6,000 experimental plots and leads the Swiss National Forest Inventory. In the SingleTree project, through the Living Lab Value Chains, WSL develops optimized forest management solutions using advanced remote sensing and multi-objective optimization methods.
The Staatsforstbetrieb Bern (SFB) is responsible for managing approximately 12,700 hectares of forest, spanning the full range of natural conditions from rich flatlands to high alpine areas. The forest is managed for a variety of services and products, including timber, natural hazard protection, biodiversity, and recreation. In the SingleTree project, SFB will host the Living Lab Central. Their forest will serve as the testing ground for all developed methods and technologies, applied in a wide range of natural environments and highly complex management structures.
The Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing group at ETH Zurich is a leading research group in deep learning for remote sensing, with a particular focus on 3D point clouds from various environments. For SingleTree, ETH will lead the work on AI foundation models for the forest sector and bring its long tradition of visual AI methods for point cloud analysis from other sectors to forest-based value chains.
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