MISTRA DIGITAL FOREST 2019 1
MISTRADIGITALFOREST SCA scanned 50,000 hectares o
f forest Last summer, the company Opegieka flew over SCA’s forests by Lake Laxsjön in Mid Sweden, and collected data using very high-resolution laser scanning. SCA anticipates that this high-resolution information can be used to make significant improvements in the forestry value chain. There is a great potential to improve the future information flow to the saw mills. SCA has made the area, which covers 50,000 hectares, available for the Forest Facts study within Mistra Digital Forest. – Several researchers have been conducting studies in the area using different types of scanning equipment. SLU has scanned parts of the surface with Terrestrial Lidar*, and some areas have been scanned from helicopters. This means that we now have data sets that are describing the area at different levels. – Now, as we have this “digital test site” we have the basis for ascertaining what we can do with this type of technology in the future, says Magnus Bergman, Chief Technical Officer at SCA. CLEARLY LINKING THE FOREST WITH INDUSTRY The 50,000 hectares are located in SCA’s core area. The company has forest, sawmills and pulp mills, all within a hundred kilometre radius. – So far, laser scanning has been used for the rough calculation of volumes. With the help of this new data, with higher resolution, we should be able to identify tree species more clearly and be able to further automate the forestry processes. Furthermore, it should be possible to make earlier forecasts for harvesting, including specifications of the timber that will be delivered to our sawmills, says Magnus Bergman. In the sawmills, customer orders determine production, and there is always a firm order for the main item being produced. – If we know early on, which wood properties we can expect to get when we fell a tree, we will be able to be even more explicit towards our internal customers. There is definitely a high potential for improvements and to create value, says Magnus Bergman adding; – We are not there yet - but we want to evaluate the solutions of the future, now. 5 MISTRA DIGITAL FOREST TEST SITES There are five different test sites within the program where high-resolution laser scanning has been carried out. Mistra Digital Test Sites are located in different parts of Sweden and hence represents different types of forests. Asa (1) (Sveaskog) and Attsjö (4) (Södra Research Foundation) are in the south, Siljansfors (2) (StoraEnso) and SCA Digital Forest test site (5) in mid Sweden, and Krycklan (3) (Södra Research Foundation) is in the north of Sweden. 1 4 *Terrestrial Lidar is a laser scanning of the forest from an all-terrain machine as a forest machine for example. 6 2 3 A M C A S G / t N s U i u S ö B j E S R s G r e M d n A N P h t o o : P e r A - q