Game-changing Technology
“SkyForest is faster, cheaper, more accurate, and it’s in real time. These features enable us to do more accurate planning.”
Bob Fleet, VP Environment & Forestry, Tolko Industries Ltd.
The benefits of SkyForest for us is it’s fast, the input data is cost-effective, and it works at two scales which is something I think is a real strength of the technology.”
Lane Gelhorn, Government of Saskatchewan, Inventory Specialist/strong>
Gelhorn.
“We’re very impressed with the progress that’s been made and look forward to some real game-changers with the SkyForest technology.”
Frank Dottori, CEO, White River Forest Products
A cost-effective, near real-time tool to deliver forest inventory data
SkyForest™enables forest managers, both industry and government, to quickly and inexpensively answer many important inventory questions that are harder, more expensive, or too time-consuming to answer through traditional inventory methods. For example:
- Detecting successional change since an earlier inventory
- Determining where and when to harvest
- Identifying habitat for woodland caribou or other featured species
- Measuring carbon sequestered in the forest or monitoring the effects of climate change
- Reassuring the public about the state of the forest
- Conducting due-diligence for a private timberland acquisition
For woodlands managers, the pressure to reduce costs and deliver the right product to the right mill on time is intense. Knowing the details of your forest inventory can make all of the difference to your profitability. SkyForest™ can make that difference. Using aerial and satellite imagery, SkyForest™ will deliver GIS layers and operational reports on hardwood/softwood composition, terrain, canopy height and volume. And all of that data adds up to lower costs!
SkyForest™ is a patented new remote sensing technology developed jointly by First Resource Management Group Inc. and Professor Benoît St-Onge, Ph.D. of the Université du Québec à Montréal. (US patent 10,095,995 B2. Canadian patent 2,930,989).
Species composition
- Compute hardwood/softwood classification over vast areas in a few weeks
- Update hardwood/softwood composition annually or upon request with no need to fly as it is based on Landsat data
- SkyForest™accurately estimates the percent softwood basal area in 20 metre pixels
- Use species composition to determine the inventory best suited for your mill
Terrain
- Developed from stereo imagery, at lower price than LiDAR, the SkyForest™ digital terrain data can delivered in a few weeks for areas of millions of hectares
- The SkyForest™ digital terrain model compares well with a DTM developed by LiDAR, with a root mean sqaure error of ~2m when compared directly with LiDAR.
- Protected by US patent 10,095,995 B2 and Canadian patent 2,930,989.
Canopy Heights
- Compute canopy heights over management units in a few weeks, using an optical digital surface model and satellite data as input
- Update canopy heights with each new flight
Timber Volume
- Estimate hardwood, mixed wood and softwood volume in 20m pixels
- Estimate the total available gross merchantable volume on site
SkyStands
SkyForest™ data is classified to meet mill requirements according to species mix, volume, canopy height and terrain into dozens of classes to create SkyStands-a convenient tool for woodlands managers and logging personnel in a more classical mapping format.