Circular Economy
and Value Chains
Leadership
Navigator Forest Portugal
ForestWISE
Investment
1,4M€
Summary
Sensing, robotics, automation and its integration with advanced planning and decision support systems are the technologies focused on these strategies.
Thus, it will be possible to boost the digital transition of forest operations, using new generation equipment and more agile decision-making processes.
This work area aims to reduce the impacts of forest operations on the soil, increase operator safety and reduce costs with a chain optimization, contributing to a greener economy and carbon neutrality.
The 3rd line of action focuses on the following areas:
It will be possible to boost the digital transition of forest operations
Harvesting and
Sustainable Forest Logistics
Most of the forest operations management is done empirically and based on few information
RePLANT will contribute to the optimization of the existing forest, adapting forest resources and operations to the national forest approach, searching for non-traditional solutions and collecting information about operations and performance of the equipment used.
Currently, most of the forest operations management is done empirically and based on few, incomplete and rarely shared information between stakeholders, resulting in less efficiency and waste of resources.
Consequently, it’s necessary to optimize logistics and value chains, sharing information and adapting available resources to a more sustainable and efficient timber harvesting.
Activities
The activities are:
New techniques for land preparing, plot fertilizing and defending against fires
New models for organizing logistics chain
Development of practices for reuse remain material for energy and other purposes
Development of structured data sharing systems between different machines, transportation systems and players
Analyzing available data in order to increase the forest work´s quality and safety
Mechanization, Automation and Robotization
Shrubs and understory vegetation management, for example, continues to be done manually, expensively and with low efficiency.
The 3rd line will adapt new technologies and equipment to a Portuguese forest approach, applying the Forest 4.0 concept through information technologies, automation and value chain digitization processes.
Despite existing new ways of working with new equipment, there was no technological evolution in Portugal. Shrubs and understory vegetation management, for example, continues to be done manually, expensively, with low efficiency and high risk for workers.
Thus, it’s very important to adapt innovative automation solutions, sensing and remote data collecting to specific operations and to existing forest equipment in Portugal, responding to forest companies needs and contributing to a wider use of these technologies.
Activities
These are the activities in this strategic line:
Improvement of the existing equipment, capable of analyze the ground, transmit information and carry out forest operations with environmental efficiency and compatible cost with the process and product economy
New intelligent soil preparation equipment to reduce fire risk by controlling the Shrubs and understory vegetation.
PRELIMINARY RESULTS
One year after the beginning of rePLANt, the I Technical Seminars were held, in which the project’s partners took stock of the activities carried out so far.
One year after the beginning of rePLANt, the I Technical Seminars were held, in which the project’s partners took stock of the activities carried out so far.
New equipment for conservative land preparation
In the third line of action, we talked about the technologies that are under development for data collection in the cutting and harvesting machines and subsequent analysis and sharing of indicators for sustainable forestry. In addition to this, the partners focused on the news about the latest tools for land preparation and fertilization and bush clearing.
In the first part, and because in Portugal the soil occupied by forests does not provide good conditions for trees, always requiring a good soil preparation, the ARG was presented. In forest plantations we can use new techniques that allow the conservation of organic matter and water retention, favoring its infiltration into the soil. This is the case with this implement, whose mechanization translates into greater efficiency and safety. The advantages do not stop there, because this equipment, besides respecting the conservation of soil and water, is able to fertilize at a variable rate and has a digital Lidar system to record the depth of the ripping in the soil.
