ESA’s ARTES Satellite to aid for smart logging Ireland

Treemetrics in Ireland, supported by ESA’s ARTES Programme, has developed an all-encompassing device with hybrid satellite/terrestrial communications and GPS to better manage our utilisation of forest resources. 

Credit: Treemetrics

Satcoms are helping to save our trees through more efficient use of our forests.

Satellites are mapping forests, sending instructions to loggers, monitoring tree-harvesting machinery and coordinating log transport almost in real time.

The Treemetrics company in Ireland, supported by ESA, has developed an all-encompassing device that uses hybrid satellite and terrestrial communications, and GPS.

The display gives detailed mapping information, showing a harvesting machine's driver which trees should be felled and how the wood should be cut.

At the same time, information on the logger's progress and location is sent via satellite to a central web-based system.

The in-vehicle display also helps other drivers find the logs stacked at specified locations so they can be moved to the roadside to await transport to sawmills.

Independent owner-operators of harvesting machinery benefit from detailed navigation as well as security features that help safeguard their equipment.

For forest owners, the system offers accurate information on logging yields.

The sawmills can tune the incoming supply by informing operators the type of timber currently in demand, whether pulp or a higher grade.


Treemetrics is also working under ESA’s ARTES Programme to develop a web-based application that uses satellite navigation and Earth observation data to provide vital insights into the health of forested areas, assisting the owners of forests to identify those areas most suitable for logging.

Satellites provide much higher-resolution images than traditional hardcopy maps, and they can be updated more frequently, giving landowners highly accurate and up-to-date information.

The Irish Farmers Association will jointly market the approach to their national membership under the name 'iForest'.

Green Belt, Ireland's largest private forestry company, has announced plans to deploy it nationally to their clients.

Coillte are in talks to begin a pre-commercial rollout of the system in a test area by the end of the year.

It is also being introduced in the UK to relay harvester information to some of the largest forestry companies.

Treemetrics plans to offer it to the haulage trucks that collect the timber left on the roadside ready for the sawmills.

This would mean the system could handle the entire timber chain, making it possible to closely track this valuable natural resource.

MODIS Witnesses Deforestation in Borneo: Agricultural fires rage

The skies over Indonesian Borneo is filled with the smoke from hundreds of fires set deliberately to clear indigenous forest areas for subsistence farmland and illegal logging. 

A shroud of thick, gray smoke hangs over the area when the Aqua satellite captured this image on Sept. 25, 2014. 

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the Aqua satellite detected dozens of fires (locations outlined in red) across the entire region from Central Borneo to South Borneo and even on East Laut Island. 

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team.

The skies over Indonesian Borneo are filled with the smoke from hundreds of fires set deliberately to clear indigenous forest areas for subsistence farmland and illegal logging.

A shroud of thick, gray smoke hung over the area when the Aqua satellite captured this image on September 25, 2014.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the Aqua satellite detected dozens of fires (locations outlined in red) across the entire region from Central Borneo to South Borneo and even on East Laut Island.

Widespread burning in lowland forests on Borneo is an annual, man-made occurrence.

People use fires to manage and create agricultural lands, including large palm tree plantations that supply palm oil for biodiesel fuel; others are set accidentally during illegal exploitation and logging.

Lowland tropical forests are underlain by a swampy layer of peat that can be up to 20 meters (66 feet) thick.

During the rainy season, when the peat is waterlogged, leaves and other organic matter in the soil don't decay; when the peat dries out, it becomes flammable.

Burning peat generates huge amounts of smoke as is evident in this satellite image. These fires contribute significantly to annual greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition, the smoke released by any type of fire (forest, brush, crop, structure, tires, waste or wood burning) is a mixture of particles and chemicals produced by incomplete burning of carbon-containing materials.

All smoke contains carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter (PM or soot).

Smoke can contain many different chemicals, including aldehydes, acid gases, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), benzene, toluene, styrene, metals and dioxins.

Human's exposure to adverse air quality and smoke should be limited as it can cause severe respiratory ailments.

ESA IDRISI: Protecting the heart of Borneo

Forest cover loss and forest degradation under Business as Usual scenario 2020, calculated using the IDRISI Land Change Modeller and spatial analysis.

Credits: Hatfield Consultants

In Southeast Asia, the island of Borneo is home to one of the world’s most diverse rainforests, but its natural resources are under threat.

Information from satellites is being used to evaluate the impact of the island’s future development.

The mountainous island is the third largest in the world.

It is an area of exceptional biological diversity and its natural resources have tremendous social and economic value at local, national and global levels.

While still of great importance, these resources have diminished in recent years due to logging, plantation development, mining and forest fires.

“The ecosystems in the heart of Borneo provide many local, regional and global services and benefits,” said Anna van Paddenburg, Sustainable Financing and Policy Strategy Leader for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia.

“The mountainous forests form the headwaters of most of Borneo’s 20 major rivers, providing water for agriculture, human consumption, and industry. 

“The forests provide timber and non-timber forest products, and store huge amounts of carbon.

“The diverse ecosystems support endemic plants and animals, which supports eco-tourism and pharmaceutical research.”

While it is widely recognised that healthy ecosystems provide services that play a critical role in maintaining individual and societal welfare, the benefits that flow from them are not always accounted for in government and private sector decision-making.

In an effort to protect the environment and develop the area in a sustainable way, the Heart of Borneo conservation agreement was initiated by WWF and signed by the governments of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei in 2007.

In December 2010, WWF initiated an assessment of Borneo’s natural capital to quantify and understand the value of ecosystem services and benefits.

ESA provided technical assistance through Hatfield Consultants, a Canadian environmental and geomatics consulting company that has been working in Indonesia for 20 years, and NEO BV, a value-adding data provider.

Read more here

Also visit one amazing individual's conservation efforts, saving gibbons and other endangered species, in neighbouring Indonesia: www.kalaweit.com