TECH4EFFECT final event highlights research impacts, provides informed dialogue on forest operations

The TECH4EFFECT final event showcased results and provided informed dialogue on digitalisation, wood supply and forest technologies.

Towards Zero Pollution: TECH4EFFECT presented at the RTDS Green Week Partner Event on 8 June: 10:10 – 12:30.

TECH4EFFECT will present at the Green Week Partner Event on 8 June: 10:10 – 12:30.

TECH4EFFECT Co-ordinator, Rasmus Astrup, presented at EUBCE event

TECH4EFFECT Co-ordinator from the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Rasmus Astrup, presented at a sideline event of the digital 29th European Biomass Conference and Exhibition on Monday, 26 April at 16:10-17:40.

He joined fellow scientists from the European Forest Institute, the Natural Resources Institute of Finland, LUKE, the Polytechnic University of Valencia and CREAF at the Speakers’ Corner event to discuss “Forest management in climate transition: good practices from applied experiences”. The event was organised by LIFE Resilient Forests under the chair of the European Biomass Industry Association.

A news item can be read on the TECH4EFFECT news feed.

TECH4EFFECT presents drone mapping, T-winch at Norwegian Ministerial event

TECH4EFFECT explains how drones are used to map wheel ruts to reduce site impact in harvesting operations.

22-24 September 2020, Forest Operations for the Future Conference, Helsingør

The Forest Operations for the Future Conference was held in Helsingør from September 22-24, 2020. Organised by the Department of Geoscience and Natural Resource Management from the University of Copenhagen, the Nordic-Baltic forestry sector addressed future research and innovation needs within forest operations.

Several partners from TECH4EFFECT (T4E) presented at the online event which was held virtually due to the Corona virus pandemic. The topic examined how forest operations could address the long-term needs of the future wood market.

Specifically, the Conference addressed topics such as the traceability of sustainably certified wood, the possibility of demand shocks, cost pressures, and the unpredictability of extreme climate changes which have affected forest operations.

TECH4EFFECT partners from the Division of Forest and Forest Resources at the Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, Rasmus Astrup, Bruce Talbot and Joachim Bernd Heppelmann presented topics relating to the long-term sustainability of forest operations through increased environmental impact assessments.

The three authors contributed to the topic of “Assessing the relationship between Depth-to-Water (DTW) mapping and rut formation following fully mechanised harvesting operations in Norway”. The subject of DTW maps has been covered on the T4E news feed in a three-part blog series that explain other T4E results. Separately, Bruce Talbot presented “Continuous surface assessments of wheel rutting compared to discrete point measurements — do the benefits justify the efforts?”.

Also on the topic of site reduction, Thomas Holzfeind from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna presented “Predicting forest roads’ bearing capacity using smart sensing technology”.

Holzfeind examined the sensitivity of unpaved forest roads after heavy thaw and rain where roads are subjected to excessive strain due to water penetrating the construction layers which reduce the road’s load bearing capacity. Effective forest management encompasses assessing the trafficability and overall accessibility of machines to and in the forest which can be restricted due to excess water.

The aim of the study was to develop an appropriate sensing approach in the field to determine the modelling parameters needed for this work, and to come up with a smart prediction model for forest roads’ bearing capacity. This should contribute both to improved planning and management of forest operations to avoid costly and unnecessary damage to roads due to a weakened road infrastructure caused by water.

Event report – T4E presents at biomass heating fair Progetto Fuoco

TECH4EFFFECT Italian consortium partners, the national alliance of forest companies, CONAIBO, and the national research council, CNR IBE, attended the world’s leading biomass heating industry event, Progetto Fuoco, in Verona, Italy in February to present the TECH4EFFECT project and SILVISMART Efficiency Portal by focusing on efficient wood procurement.

TECH4EFFECT promotes and creates methods, tools, business models and digital solutions to encourage increased wood production and environmental efficiency for many uses within the wood value chain, including biomass heating.

National Assembly opens event

President of CONAIBO, Livio Bozzolo, opened the National Assembly of Italian forest enterprises at the Progetto Fuoco event which met for the purposes of information sharing and discussion. Lawyer Alessandro Franco addressed the critical issues of safety within the forestry sector, while the new European Union Timber Regulation was presented by the Technical Director of CIFORT-CONAIBO, Luca Canzan. Major of the Carabineri and Commander of CITES team of Vicenza, Luca Stella, gave other specific Italian normative updates involving the sector.

Key forestry representatives discuss safety and timber regulations

T4E Partner at Progetto Fuoco 2020

The TECH4EFFECT workshop, which was the second part of the meeting, was held after the assembly. CNR IBE participant, Dr Natascia Magagnotti, gave a general presentation on the TECH4EFFECT project highlighting the main results achieved to date, while CONAIBO representative for TECH4EFFECT, Dr Giulio Cosola, presented the SILVISMART Efficiency Portal under the title “Techniques and technologies for an efficient wood procurement”.

SILVISMART efficiency portal is explained by Giulio Cosola

SILVISMART

SILVISMART, a major deliverable of TECH4EFFECT, has developed a forestry data efficiency portal based on the collection of real-time data from forestry operations for business intelligence and decision support.

Collected data is systemised and transformed into valuable information, which is secure, and presented in pictorial graphs aiming to transfer better knowledge and control over a harvesting operation. The data collector has full control on what data is shared, taking care of any GDPR issues. 

Participation interest shown

The workshop was well attended by many forest enterprises using mechanized harvesters which potentially makes it is easier to provide data transferred from the onboard computers in harvester cabs.

Cosola said that Italy typically had a combination of both mechanized harvesters and motor manual means, even for technologically advanced and modern enterprises.

“This is due to its mountainous terrain and naturalistic forest contexts where felling operations are carried out by chainsaws and tractors, which are still an important part of the wood logging process in the country,” he explained.

He emphasized that new enterprises with modern harvester forwarder machines showed a keen interest in joining the project when the TECH4EFFECT Mapping App became active. 

“Data would then be able to be sent to the portal account of the operator in a way that would be possible to sync data by location (object) and operator/machine, as well,” he said.

The event which gathered relevant parties was deemed a success in that it allowed for constructive discussion and exchange which was specifically relevant to the TECH4EFFECT project.

3-5 June 2020, TEUFOR, Kraków/Poland

PRE-ANNOUNCEMENT

From June 3-5* 2020 the TEUFOR conference will take place in Kraków/ Poland. The topic is “Modern Technologies and Engineering in Sustainable Forest Utilization“. Main objectives of the event are:

  • “Presenting and discussing current scientific and practical achievements in the field of forest utilization based on forest technique and engineering development in terms of permanent and sustainable forest management.
  • Exchanging current scientific attainments and practical applications between scientific centres of many countries in Europe and around the world shall contribute to increase quality of forest utilization as well as intensify international cooperation in the scope of conducted research, higher education and international scholar exchange.

The panels will focus on: forest utilization and transportation; ergonomics in forestry; forest technology; and forest engineering.

Stay in touch to keep updated on which TECH4EFFECT results will be presented at TEUFOR!

*Changes due to the current situation with the Corona pandemic might occur. Please check the website of the conference organisers regularly!

19-22 February 2020, Progetto Fuoco fair, Verona, Italy

On February 19-22 2020 Progetto Fuoco, the renowned fair in the sector of plants and equipment for the production of heat and energy from wood combustion, will be held in Verona/Italy. Stay in touch to find out more about TECH4EFFECT being represented at the fair!

 

26-27 October 2019, Forestalia, Piacenza, Italy

Forestalia is THE forestry trade fair in Italy, located in Piacenza from 26-27 of October 2019. This year will feature not only machine demonstrations and exhibitions, but also a TECH4EFFECT seminar organised by CNR-IVALSA and CONAIBO.

Keep checking our updates for more info!

6 – 9 October 2019, FORMEC – COFE, Sopron, Hungary – with TECH4EFFECT session

The 52 edition of the symposium ‘Forestry Mechanization’ or FORMEC will be held together with the 42 edition of the Council on Forest Engineering (COFE). This year TECH4EFFECT has its’ own session at FORMEC! Also this is the first time for a COFE meeting taking place in Europe – in Sopron, Hungary. Join also the field trip to Forchtenstein in Austria to attend AUSTROFOMA, the only Austrian forestry machine and device demonstration where all the machines on display are shown performing real-life tasks.

The TECH4EFFECT session on Monday, 7th October starts at 10:30 in Room1 and includes the following presentations:

  • Productivity and fuel consumption of heavy forwarders under different configurations: benchmarks from fleet-level long-term records (one million loads). Raffaele Spinelli, Angelo Conrado de Arruda Moura (A-0071)
  • Productivity and Environmental Impacts of Cable-assisted Logging – A case study in southern Oregon, USA. Woodam Chung, Brett Morrissette, Preston Green, Ben Leshchinsky, Kevin Bladon, Jeff Hatten, John Sessions (A-0117)
  • A micro-catchment approach to measuring surface run-off after cable logging. Bruce Talbot, Omar Mologni, Nicholas Clarke, Marek Pierzchala, Rasmus Astrup  (A-0152)
  • Assessing Cable Tensile Forces of Winch-Assisted Forwarders on Steep Terrain under Real Working Conditions. Thomas Holzfeind, Christian Kanzian, Karl Stampfer, Franz Holzleitner  (A-0061)
  • Factors Affecting Productivity and Utilisation of Winch-Assist Machines: Six Case Studies in New Zealand and Canada. Cameron Leslie, Colin Koszman, James Hunt, Rien Visser, Hunter Harrill, Dominik Roeser (A-0115)
  • Flat and wet: Cable yarding on sensitive soils in Europe – motivations, challenges and potential. Gernot Erber, Raffaele Spinelli, Giovanna Ottaviani Aalmo, Dirk Jaeger, Marian Schönauer, Stephan Hoffmann, Bruce Talbot, Karl Stampfer (A-0054)

Don’t miss the keynote from our coordinator Rasmus Astrup on Tuesday morngin:

  • A-0193 Digitalization of forest harvesting: the potential for improved environmental and production efficiency; Rasmus Astrup, Room 1, 8:00.

Several posters are also based on TECH4EFFECT:

  • A-0021: Smart sensing technology for predicting forest road’s bearing capacity (Franz Holzleitner et al.)
  • A-0098: Indicator based assessment of trafficability of forest roads (Marian Schönauer et al.)
  • Coppice after 3 different cutting systems: growth capacity and mortality (Carolina Lombardini et al.)

Click on the ‘TECH4EFFECT button in the program, to access the abstracts on the conference website. For more details and registration, also visit the conference website.