Dear Colleagues,

Forests are among the world’s greatest assets. Their role in combating climate change and maintaining long-term environmental and social sustainability, from local to global scales, is well-established. Nevertheless, while monitoring for the wise management of forests is a major concern, obtaining adequate information and data over large extents and time periods can be expensive and challenging.

The attention given to the improvement of forest monitoring systems has sharply increased in recent years. For example, several organizations, also driven by the needs of international policies (e.g., REDD+), have promoted the development of tools for the collection, harmonization, and analysis of distributed forest observations (e.g., FAO FRA and Open-Foris). However, issues related to multi-source data integration, accessibility, and (re)usability, as well as intellectual and legal rights, still significantly hinder much-needed developments. Therefore, there is wide opportunity and need for the development of new data handling and analysis approaches that are capable of harnessing technological advances.

New measurement devices, such as proxy-remote sensors, and new data storage/processing capacities, such as online platforms, now allow the collection and manipulation of unprecedented volumes of forest observations and multi-temporal measurements. This data can result from a range of in-situ, to landscape, to regional or continental level studies, and can be focused on one or more knowledge domains and application realms. This multiplicity of sources, scales, and data types, as well as the pressing need for advancing knowledge supporting modelling and sustainability decisions, present relevant and exciting research challenges.  

We invite articles addressing advances in data and methods for Forest Monitoring Systems and Assessments at Multiple Scales. The focus is on the advancement of capacities for producing accurate and consistent multi-temporal and multi-scale forest information, be it in data collection, archiving, processing, management, and distribution; or in methodological developments for analysis and modelling. The main objective of this Special Issue is to foster access and promote the (re)usability of data sets and methods in science, thus adding value to information gathering and analysis efforts, promoting interchanges among scholar and entrepreneurial initiatives, and gaining cost-effectiveness in the advancement of knowledge for forest monitoring.

The list of subjects includes, but is not limited to:

Data and Methods for Forest Monitoring Systems

• Data collection, including proxy-remote sensing and other devices (e.g., LiDAR, unmanned aerial vehicles and drones)
• Earth observation systems and networks
• Point cloud data
• Multi-source and multi-temporal forest data integration methodologies and harmonization of forest measurements across scales
• Data preprocessing, data analysis, data fusion techniques
• Big Data processing and cloud computing
• Data-driven techniques, including statistics and artificial intelligence methods
• Data mining and machine learning methods
• Parallel and distributed data analysis
• Modelling and simulation
• Image processing
• Time series analysis
• Crowd-sourcing
• Social networks and social media (e.g., Twitter, Instagram)
• Open source, open access, and open government data

Topics Relevant for Forest Monitoring Systems

• Forest ecosystems characteristics, functioning, and health status at local and regional/biome levels
• Forests in the stabilization of soils and watersheds
• Forest restoration, forest conservation, and terrestrial habitats
• Climate change, mitigation, and adaptation
• Coastal ecosystems and habitats
• Natural hazards and disasters related to forests, namely the monitoring of biomass burning and the prediction of forest fires
• Biodiversity, farming, and forestry
• Sustainable forest management and integrated landscape approaches
• Socioeconomic models for improving forest uses, management, and benefits
• Valuation of forest ecosystem services
• Environment and forest ecology as contributions to the resilience of communities
• Forests’ support of agriculture and human well-being

Prof. Dr. Maria José Vasconcelos
Guest Editor

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