FORMA

Mountain forests are among the most important economic assets of South Tyrol, both in terms of production and the ecosystem services they provide. However, they are threatened by climate change, leading to an increase in catastrophic events, the spread of diseases, and infestations. A key tool for preventing and mitigating forest damage is effective and timely forest management planning. Currently, forest management plans are updated every ten years based on manually collected data. The FORMA project aims to automate and improve the collection and processing of this data, enabling more frequent updates to forest management plans and a more effective response to climate change. To achieve this, three enabling technologies will be combined: legged robotics, hyperspectral cameras, and cargo drones. Through these technologies, it will be possible to automatically scan both the upper and lower canopy simultaneously and assess the health of trees, providing forest operators with a complete and accurate picture of the forest's condition and allowing for precision, climate-smart forest management interventions