Recent Advances in Wood Harvesting, Timber Logistics and Road Planning: Series II

Dear Colleagues,

Global megatrends and operational challenges drive us to operate more efficiently and sustainably. There are currently several ongoing comprehensive research, development and innovation (RDI) studies introducing the possibilities of improving the cost, energy efficiency and quality of wood-harvesting operations, long-distance transport and forest road planning. For instance, scientists have upgraded the trafficability forecasts of forest stands by applying remote sensing, weather data and machine learning, and they have utilized multi-sensor technology and deep-learning algorithms to predict and monitor the condition of gravel forest roads for planning timber transport. Moreover, there are interesting studies on automation and teleoperation in forests and on the roads and mill yards of forest industries. Furthermore, the latest topographic and geotechnical data have been utilized to plan and construct optimal networks of forest roads. In summary, digitalization with novel multi-source data and artificial intelligence gives us immense opportunities to overcome challenges and design and build more workable, transparent and leaner processes in the value chain of forest industries.

This Special Issue of Forests seeks RDI papers which report the recent advances in wood harvesting, timber logistics, and forest road planning related to the issues of efficiency, biodiversity, costs, added economic value, quality, safety, and the well-being of personnel in wood supply processes and systems. I would also like to encourage you to submit state-of-the-art papers and technical review papers which highlight the new major themes of our future RDI agenda in the value chain of forest industries.

Prof. Dr. Kalle Kärhä
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• digitalization
• multi-source data
• sensors
• artificial intelligence
• automation
• decision support systems (DSSs)
• wood supply chain
• forest operations
• long-distance transport
• forest roads