Tag Archive for: open access

Publication: Spatial distribution of the potential forest biomass availability in Europe

European forests are considered a crucial resource for supplying biomass to a growing bio-economy in Europe. This study aimed to assess the potential availability of forest biomass from European forests and its spatial distribution. We tried to answer the questions (i) how is the potential forest biomass availability spatially distributed across Europe and (ii) where are hotspots of potential forest biomass availability located?

Verkerk from EFI et. al analysed the total availability of forest biomass and spatial distribution of woody biomass potential for 39 European countries. They found out that the distribution of biomass potentials that are currently unused only partially coincides with regions that currently have high levels of wood production.

Read the abstract or download the full pdf!
Data is also available on Zenodo.

Figure 1: Comparison of the BASE, TECH, HIGH and BIOD forest biomass potentials in 39 European countries

Publication: Decreasing Fuel Consumption of Excavator-Based Harvesters with Machine Control System

Compared with purpose-built units, excavator-based harvesters offer many advantages, but they consume more fuel. Fuel efficiency can be increased by a better interface between the excavator and the harvester head.

Spinelli et al from CNR just published testing results of a new adaptation kit in Forests 2019 (10(1), 43; https://doi.org/10.3390/f10010043). The kit is specifically designed to improve the communication between these two components. After installing the adaptation kit, productivity increased 6%, while fuel consumption per hour decreased 3.5%. Fuel consumption and CO2 emissions per product unit decreased 10%, as an average.

Read the abstract or download the full pdf!

 

Figure 1: One of the excavator-based harvesters at work (left); the adaptation kit (right).

First public deliverable: Identifying and extending key silvicultural systems

The silviculture work package (WP2) focuses on the optimization of the access to wood resources. This goal involves two main aspects:

  1. The evaluation of appropriate silvicultural operations, and
  2. The application of appropriate harvesting techniques – aiming at the promotion of mechanized systems wherever possible.

Appropriate silvicultural measures are principally intended to increase wood production, maintain the biodiversity and resilience but also to enable and facilitate the use of efficient silvicultural and harvesting operations. The development of methods for increasing the wood production and optimizing the interface between harvesting technology and silvicultural procedures is the research emphasis of this work package.

Look at the abstract or read the full deliverable!

Publication out: operational UAV based approach for stand-level assessment of soil disturbance after forest harvesting

The first TECH4EFFECT publication in 2018 coming from Bruce Talbot et al. from NIBIO is now avialable for free download, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research:

Operational UAV based approach for stand-level assessment of soil disturbance after forest harvesting

Read the abstract or download the whole publication: http://www.tech4effect.eu/media-corner/publications/