A spatially explicit database of wind disturbances in European forests over the period 2000-2018

Strong winds may uproot and break trees and represent a major natural disturbance for European forests. Wind disturbances have intensified over the last decades globally and are expected to further rise in view of the effects of climate change. Despite the importance of such natural disturbances, there are currently no spatially explicit databases of wind-related impact at a pan-European scale. Here, we present a new database of wind disturbances in European forests (FORWIND). FORWIND is comprised of more than 80 000 spatially delineated areas in Europe that were disturbed by wind in the period 2000-2018 and describes them in a harmonized and consistent geographical vector format. The database includes all major windstorms that occurred over the observational period (e.g. Gudrun, Kyrill, Klaus, Xynthia and Vaia) and represents approximately 30% of the reported damaging wind events in Europe. Correlation analyses between the areas in FORWIND and land cover changes retrieved from the Landsat-based Global Forest Change dataset and the MODIS Global Disturbance Index corroborate the robustness of FORWIND. Spearman rank coefficients range between 0.27 and 0.48 (p value < 0.05). When recorded forest areas are rescaled based on their damage degree, correlation increases to 0.54. Wind-damaged growing stock volumes reported in national inventories (FORESTORM dataset) are generally higher than analogous metrics provided by FORWIND in combination with satellite-based biomass and country-scale statistics of growing stock volume. The potential of FORWIND is explored for a range of challenging topics and scientific fields, including scaling relations of wind damage, forest vulnerability modelling, remote sensing monitoring of forest disturbance, representation of uprooting and breakage of trees in large-scale land surface models, and hydrogeological risks following wind damage. Overall, FORWIND represents an essential and open-access spatial source that can be used to improve the understanding, detection and prediction of wind disturbances and the consequent impacts on forest ecosystems and the land-atmosphere system. Data sharing is encouraged in order to continuously update and improve FORWIND

Il progetto NEWFOR - NEW technologies for a better mountain FORest timber mobilization

NEWFOR (NEW technologies for a better mountain FORest timber mobilization) is a research project funded by the Alpine Space Programme. It brings together 14 institutes from 6 countries of the alpine space with the aim of improving forest timber evaluation and mobilisation. The project considers the whole wood supply chain, from forests to wood yards, with a particular emphasis on new remote sensing technologies (LiDAR, high resolution orthophotos) and geographical information systems. The project has begun in September 2011 for a 3 years duration. The paper shows the structure of the project and present the test site located in the Veneto Region (Altopiano di Asiago, VI)

Foreste di protezione contro la caduta massi a livello alpino: analisi multiscala dal masso alle Alpi

none15sinoneLingua Emanuele, Bolzon Paola, Bettella Francesco, Costa Maximiliano, Garbarino Matteo, Marzano Raffaella, Meloni Fabio, Sibona Emanuele, Piras Marco, Belcore Elena, Comini Bruna, Comin Paola, Alberti Ruggiero, Wolynski Alessandro, Berger FrédéricLingua, Emanuele; Bolzon, Paola; Bettella, Francesco; Costa, Maximiliano; Garbarino, Matteo; Marzano, Raffaella; Meloni, Fabio; Sibona, Emanuele; Piras, Marco; Belcore, Elena; Comini, Bruna; Comin, Paola; Alberti, Ruggiero; Wolynski, Alessandro; Berger, Frédéri

A spatially explicit database of wind disturbances in European forests over the period 2000-2018

Strong winds may uproot and break trees and represent a major natural disturbance for European forests. Wind disturbances have ntensified over the last decades globally and are expected to further rise in view of the effects of climate change. Despite the importance of such natural disturbances, there are currently no spatially explicit databases of wind-related impact at a pan-European scale. Here, we present a new database of wind disturbances in European forests (FORWIND). FORWIND is comprised of more than 80 000 spatially delineated areas in Europe that were disturbed by wind in the period 2000–2018 and describes them in a harmonized and consistent geographical vector format. The database includes all major windstorms that occurred over the observational period (e.g. Gudrun, Kyrill, Klaus, Xynthia and Vaia) and represents approximately 30 % of the reported damaging wind events in Europe. Correlation analyses between the areas in FORWIND and land cover changes retrieved from the Landsat-based Global Forest Change dataset and the MODIS Global Disturbance Index corroborate the robustness of FORWIND. Spearman rank coefficients range between 0.27 and 0.48 (p value < 0.05). When recorded forest areas are rescaled based on their damage degree, correlation increases to 0.54. Wind-damaged growing stock volumes reported in national inventories (FORESTORM dataset) are generally higher than analogous metrics provided by FORWIND in combination with satellite-based biomass and country-scale statistics of growing stock volume. The potential of FORWIND is explored for a range of challenging topics and scientific fields, including scaling relations of wind damage, forest vulnerability modelling, remote sensing monitoring of forest disturbance, representation of uprooting and breakage of trees in largescale land surface models, and hydrogeological risks following wind damage. Overall, FORWIND represents an essential and open-access spatial source that can be used to improve the understanding, detection and prediction of wind disturbances and the consequent impacts on forest ecosystems and the land–atmosphere system. Data sharing is encouraged in order to continuously update and improve FORWIND. The dataset is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.9555008 (Forzieri et al., 2019)JRC.D.1-Bio-econom