VTT TECHNICAL RESEARCH CENTRE OF FINLAND LTD Forest monitoring techniques with Forestry Thematic Exploitation Platform to support REDD+ Tuomas Häme Tuomas.Hame@vtt.fi +358 40 587-0631 http://forestry-tep.eo.esa.int/
Objective of Forestry-TEP (F-TEP) One-stop shop for forestry remote sensing services for the academic, public and commercial sectors Move away from model where each user works in their own silo Community centric Reduce the costs of data acquisition from miscellaneous sources with varying formats and processing levels Self-service environment with support 2 2
Challenges: Limited resources and capacity Limited number of staff Limited computing resources Limited software tools Limited expertise to use data and software Limited time Limited funding 3 3
Forestry-TEP Project One of the seven TEPs funded by European Space Agency ESA Timeline: March 2015 - September 2017 Aim to become an operational system Completed work: User community survey, System design, Detailed design etc. On-going work: System implementation, data and service agreements, pilot project preparation, sustainability development Pre-operational services: Opening now to selected beta users (consortium, Mexico, FAO) Wider forestry community during spring 2017 RSPSoc-2016 4
The F-TEP project team Tuomas Häme (VTT) Project Manager & User Community Leader Renne Tergujeff (VTT) Deputy Project Manager Clive Farquhar (CGI) Systems Development Manager Infrastructure services: 5 5
Forestry TEP overall concept Collaboration, Interaction, Support Providers EO data Ref. data Tools and Services Both open-source and licensed Web GUI Promotion, sales F-TEP VM environment Processing, Private workspaces, Collaboration, Sharing, Support Both free and commercial offerings and service levels Users Users ref. data Users algorithms /scripts services 6 6
User communities User Type Message Forest and climate research and development community Large forest owners and managers Focus on science. Forest information without burden. Overall message: One-stop Shop for Forestry Earth Observation Services Forest certification organizations Regional/national forest administration UN organizations International Initiatives, research programs and panels International development banks Sustainable development NGOs Value adding (SME) industries and consultants International administrations and agencies Big picture on forest. Forest at your fingertips. Support for REDD and sustainable forest management. Big picture on forest. Knowing forest value. Today s information on forest state. Global market for your services. 7 Marketplace for your data and information. 7
F-TEP Approach for user support Users have varying levels of expertise in EO data and processing EO Novices: forest specialists, policy makers, administration EO Experts: academics, professionals Simplicity for novice users web site with push-button functionality Full capability for expert users virtual environment, state-of-the-art tools Learning support for all self-explaining UI, wiki, videos, forum, helpdesk All users start with a simple web user interface Can unlock new functionality in line with the (growing) confidence 8 8
Similar and different requirements among user groups Similar requirements Easy access to a range of specific products Timely access to data Access to wide set of data types Diversity in user requirements e.g. spatial resolution, processing levels, source data, geographic area Scale: from small study areas to sites of province and country level 9 9
Platform functionality Access to relevant EO data Efficient data exploitation Toolboxes, services Use of (own) in-situ data Very simple user interface and procedure for basic tasks Advanced features for more complex tasks Accuracy assessment (RMS errors, confusion matrices) Visual analysis Data management Service development Sharing/licensing products & services Accounting Collaborative working Community features, forum Support helpdesk 10 10
Usage scenarios 1. Generation of products (primarily for the user himself) Exploitation using the available processing and visualization tools 2. Creation of a new processing service Possible to publish and sell the service also for others 3. Generation of new products for publishing Ready-made products available on the platform 11 11
Data sources (free and commercial) Sentinel-1 Sentinel-2 Landsat-5/7/8 ERS-1/2 SAR Envisat ASAR DEM (various) ALOS PALSAR JERS Pleiades Spot SAOCOM (future) RapidEye 12 12
Services and tools SNAP - Sentinel toolboxes Monteverdi / Orfeo toolbox QGIS Open Foris Preprocessing, ortho-rectification, and radiometric and geometric correction tools VTT services AutoChange, Probability, Envimon Further services Possibility for output of other projects, such as: ESA: Innovators III AccuCarbon ESA DUE GlobBiomass ESA: Innovators III SAR for REDD 13 13
Application implementation Already implemented Land cover using Sentinel-2 Land cover using Sentinel-1 Scripts to run several programs sequentially SNAP and Orfeo Toolbox 14 14
New applications approximately monthly Change Vegetation indices Biomass Proprietary software Functionality for service and product providers (scenarios 2 and 3) 15 15
Degree of operational maturity in forest variable mapping using Earth observation Stem basal area, volume, biomass Site fertility LAI, FaPAR 1 Mineral soil/peatland Height Damage Change Species Forest area Basic research Fully operational 1 Applied operationally but with variable results and without common accuracy assessment For the provision of reliable statistical data the maturity is lower also for forest area Radar methods less mature than with optical data 16/11/2016 16
F-TEP and REDD+ Land and forest cover Biomass (stratification) Change (stratification) -> degradation commonly accepted definition would greatly help Reference data Format: shape files with attributes From the user Collect Earth From common sources reliability? 17 17
User Interface Mock-up Selection of data and processing Explorer/Data 18 18
User Interface Mock-up Monitoring and management of the processing tasks Workspace/My Jobs 19 19
Pilots in Mexico and Finland Monitoring of forest carbon in Mexico Mapping of harmful broadleaved shrubs in regeneration areas 20 20
Pilot projects Pilot 1 (Mexico) Pilot 2 (Finland) Region Chiapas and Durango states Finland Area covered 73,311 km 2 (Chiapas) and 123,317 km 2 (Durango) 338,424 km 2 (TBD according to user preferences) Theme Monitoring of above ground biomass and quantifying associated carbon stocks for climate change reporting Operational forest management; mapping undesired broadleaved tree shrubs on forest regeneration areas Key outputs Forest cover mapping and change detection Map on degree of shrub damage on regeneration areas Key data used Sentinel-1 SAR, Sentinel-2 optical (one state) Sentinel-2 Optical In-situ data Key users involved 1: Durango university ground sample network 2: From ESA pilot project EducEO 3: Optionally NFI plots from Chiapas Ministry of Environment and Natural History of the state government of Chiapas University of Durango Mexican NGO s (several) ESA nominated users Forestry Centre s stand database Collected by Forestry Centre during standard field work Finnish Forest Centre (part of Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry) ESA nominated users 21 21
Costs and sustainability The development phase is paid in full by ESA Aiming at sustainable operation after the pre-operations phase permanent F-TEP Costs accounting is supported to enable pay-per-use model Alternative business models: Fees from service, data and product providers Donor fund Freemium model is currently the primary approach Free entry-level services Multiple service levels 22 22
F-TEP Evolution Research users Develop and share new algorithms or EO products for the research community through F-TEP Share ideas & enable collaboration New sensors Data fusion Novel algorithms Routine end users Forest resources management Change, damage Silviculture Harvesting Nature REDD conservation Carbon cycle National forest F-TEP inventory Forest resources management Silviculture Harvesting Non-EO users Ecosystem services Acquire required products easily through F-TEP Advanced expert users Develop new services or products to increase offering Administrator users make it all happen 23 23
Conclusions Implementation ongoing and project on schedule Overwhelmingly positive response from the user community challenge to satisfy the high expectations Ensure sustainability large enough user base a prerequisite with few giant users Communication network is an issue outside Europe 24 24
One-stop shop for forestry remote sensing services for the academic, operational public and commercial sectors Contact forestry-tep.eo.esa.int Tuomas Häme tuomas.hame@vtt.fi +358 40 587 0631 Renne Tergujeff renne.tergujeff@vtt.fi +358 40 501 7057 In the photo, with permission: Daniel Vega / Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango, a Forestry TEP pilot user