It takes forest soil a long time to recuperate after being compacted by heavy logging gear. That’s why Roth has digitally mapped all of the logging trails and outfitted tree harvesters with high-precision satellite tv for pc antennas so the machines can exactly comply with the identical route for many years and simply discover them within the chaotic aftermath of a storm. GPS knowledge is used to report how a lot timber was extracted from which location—a vital improve in a forest with many various homeowners.
A digital actuality: Since most of his work can now be performed on a cell machine, Roth is spending extra time open air: “I take the digital steps outdoors on website, in opposition to the backdrop of actuality.”
His most up-to-date mission is combining physique digital camera footage with AI. “[Usually] you mark the bushes, they’re felled, and you don’t have any thought how a lot timber you’ll find yourself with—what number of cubic meters, what high quality, which tree species,” he explains. Now AI, “trying” via his physique digital camera, routinely acknowledges the tree species he has marked and estimates the quantity of timber it should produce, sending the data to his telephone in actual time.
Making ready for the long run: As much as half of European tree species are unsuited to rising temperatures and prolonged drought durations, so Roth has begun experimenting with new species, planting them in small batches and preserving observe of them in his system. With a forest in flux, there are dozens of areas that want interventions at completely different instances, and there are usually not sufficient workers to maintain all of it straight, he says: “Both I do know it, or the pc is aware of it, or nobody is aware of it and it’s misplaced.”
Roth’s experience in tackling the challenges of contemporary forestry with know-how is more and more wanted—colleagues attain out for recommendation, and he lectures on digitalization in forestry on the Rottenburg College of Utilized Forest Sciences. However he warns that know-how can by no means exchange a ramble via the forest: “I ought to by no means imagine that the digital twin is actuality. I all the time need to do a actuality test.”
