Prospettive e potenzialità della digitalizzazione del settore forestale in Italia

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a key role for improving the implementation of sustainable forest management at local, regional, and global level. The ICT potential to easily exploit a wider and more up-to-date set of information on the economic, environmental, and so- cial value of forests is of relevant help for the daily work of technicians, land owners, and companies in boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of forest management. The concept of “Precision Forestry” (PF) was developed from the early 2000s, as a branch of precision farming or precision agriculture. PF includes the use of ICT, remote and proximal sensing technologies, and other devices to coordinate and control several processes on a spatial scale (“Precision”) for monitoring, planning, and managing forest resources (“Forestry”). The aim of this monography is to collect and describe some of the most important PF experiences applied or potential- ly useful for the Italian forestry sector. It may represent a reference guide for the stakeholders, such as forest owners, professional technicians, public administrators, and policy makers. The book includes eleven chapters reviewing the main tech- nological tools available in the Italian context and the most recent advances of ICT in forestry, also focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of their practical implementation. The opportunities and challenges of implementing PF meth- ods, practices and technologies are also discussed. In the first two chapters the precision forestry concept and its historical development are introduced. In the third chap- ter some basic elements of ICT, GIS, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), remote/proximal sensing, and related technologies which are essential for a better compre- hension of PF applications are recalled. In chapter 4 recent advances in large scale forest inventories with a focus on mapping and on the spatial estimation of forest variables integrating field surveys and multisource re- motely sensed data are described. Current advancements in the acquisition of field information including Terrestrial La- ser Scanning (TLS), new digital dendrometers, tree-talkers, terrestrial cameras, and APP for portable devices such as smartphones or tablets for dendrometric tree measures and new citizen science applications to support quantitative and qualitative spatial estimation of forest variables over large areas (i.e., forest health, fuel types) are also presented. The chapter ends up with the description of some experiences in the implementation of Forest Information Systems in Italy to provide a simple open-access to such new generation of spatial forest information. In chapter 5 PF tools, instruments, and technologies to sup- port sustainable forest management are illustrated. APPs developed to acquire field plots data to simulate manage- ment operations, the application of photogrammetric tech- nologies from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and TLS data for monitoring with high-spatial scale forest monitoring and for acquiring indicators at single tree level are presented. A de- tailed description of new user-friendly tools for forest roadplanning, design and construction, as well as forest opera- tion planning is also included. Precision forest tree farming (with particular reference to poplar cultivation), useful to promote and increase the prof- itability and sustainability of forest plantations within the Italian context is described in chapter 6. The innovation and enhancement within the supply chain of wood plantations (from planting to harvesting, including monitoring and identification of stress) by soil proximal sensing techniques, Early Warning Systems, and specific software are highlight- ed. Considering the even higher market demands, promoted by the large-scale planting programs for climate changes mit- igation and the demands for propagation material for en- vironmental recovery, innovative techniques and methods supported by ICT in the forest nursery sector are described in chapter 7. In chapter 8 available technologies related to precision har- vesting are analyzed and described taking into consideration the wood chain efficiency, by means of improved commu- nications between the owner/buyer and operators as well as among machineries used in forest operations, health and safety of forest operators, environmental impacts mitigation and recovery, and operators training. Advanced communi- cation systems and sensors for the exchange of data and information between machines, machine-equipments and/or machine-operators, teleoperations and automation are also described. Chapters 9 and 10 are related to wood products traceabil- ity, timber quality assessment as well as the technologies for the optimization of wood transformation processes. The concepts of wood product traceability and tracing, togeth- er with latest digital technologies for the identification and tracking of the logs (i.e., fingerprinting and RFID), are de- tailly reported. Chapter 11 is finally dedicated to the relationship between the EU policy framework and the digitalization process in both agricultural and forestry sectors. The book summarizes, under a proactive and homogeneous framework, PF methods, tools and technologies in relation with the digital transition of the Italian forestry sectors. The authors hope this book will be useful for improving the implementation of sustainable forest management practic- es at all levels in Italy, providing a comprehensive review useful for policy makers, technicians, forestry owners and students

Prospettive e potenzialità della digitalizzazione del settore forestale in Italia

Le risorse forestali (sensu lato, incluse le aree verdi urbane, le piantagioni da legno e gli alberi fuori-foresta) svolgono un’ampia gamma di servizi ecosistemici. Il Global Forest Resource Assessment della FAO (2020) riporta un trend globale di deforestazione che nel periodo 1990 - 2020 ha portato alla perdita di circa 180 milioni di ettari di foreste per la loro conversione ad uso agricolo o urbano. La deforestazione è, però, un processo che interessa principalmente le foreste primarie e le foreste naturali modificate nelle aree tropicali e nei Paesi a basso e medio reddito. Nello stesso periodo nell’emisfero boreale la superficie forestale è aumentata, prevalentemente per effetto dell’abbandono delle aree agricole marginali e dell’effetto delle politiche di rimboschimento. Nel quadro dei principi di gestione forestale sostenibile volti a massimizzare la multifunzionalità degli ambienti forestali, l’utilizzo delle tecnologie di informazione e comunicazione (ICT) giocano un ruolo essenziale nell’innovazione ed efficientamento dei processi gestionali e nella creazione di nuovi prodotti e servizi a sostegno di imprenditori, tecnici forestali, proprietari e gestori dei boschi e delle piantagioni da legno e cittadini. L’ottimizzazione della gestione forestale determina importanti positive ricadute sulla qualità delle produzioni legnose, sulla riduzione dei costi di produzione e sulla minimizzazione degli impatti ambientali e sociali. L’impiego delle nuove tecnologie consente di contribuire a: i) realizzare analisi complesse di dati di interesse in modo più semplice ed economico; ii) supportare scelte progettuali e gestionali secondo percorsi standardizzati e ripetibili; iii) ottimizzare l’uso delle risorse riducendo gli impatti sull’ambiente; iv) favorire la comunicazione e l’approccio partecipativo sulla base di piattaforme informative condivise, standardizzate e ad alta accessibilità informatica (ad esempio, Web-Gis e App per terminali mobili). La disponibilità di metodi e strumenti ICT si traduce nell’applicazione di quella che viene definita "selvicoltura di precisione" (precision forestry - PF): questa monografia presenta una rassegna commentata dell’offerta tecnologica disponibile in merito, con riferimento all’inventariazione avanzata delle risorse forestali, ai sistemi di gestione selvicolturale, ai sistemi di impianto e coltivazione delle piantagioni da legno, ai sistemi di utilizzazione forestale, alla tracciabilità dei prodotti forestali e alla valorizzazione tecnologica degli assortimenti legnosi. In particolare, la monografia analizza i più recenti avanzamenti nelle ICT che possono rendere più efficienti la gestione delle risorse forestali e delle piantagioni da legno e la filiera foresta-legno in Italia: sono evidenziati i punti di forza e di debolezza che influiscono sulle possibilità di effettiva implementazione di queste tecnologie con riferimento alle condizioni del nostro Paese e le auspicabili soluzioni migliorative nel quadro delle sfide per lo sviluppo del settore