Forest Carbon Flux and Storage Mapping Service

Forest Flux will revolutionize forestry value added services in Earth Observation (EO) by creating and piloting a cloud-based service for committed users on forest carbon assimilation and structural variable prediction using Copernicus data. The revolution is driven by sustainable forest management and anticipated by EU forest strategy, the Bioeconomy Action Pan, and the demands of environmentally aware end-users of wood industry products. Until recently, detailed information on forest carbon cycle has not been available due to a lack of scientific understanding, spatial data availability, limited processing capacity, and the complexity of implementing this information in business processes. Forest Flux will use the explosive increase in high-resolution EO data by Copernicus program and developments of cloud computing technology. It will implement world-first service platform for high-resolution maps of traditional forestry variables together with forest carbon fluxes using a holistic approach in a single processing chain. By the end of the project, forestry and carbon data will be completely integrated into the decision-making processes of selected core users and establish the leadership of European industry in sustainable utilization of forest resources. The relevant algorithms have been recently demonstrated by consortium partners. The computing infrastructure is specifically targeted for EO data and forestry users, and will be fully functional by the end of the project. The web-based human and machine interfaces will allow market access unrestricted by country boundaries and facilitate easy commercial interactions of players of different sizes and backgrounds. Dedicated user involvement, strong commercial interests, rapidly developing online markets, and demonstrated excellence of the consortium make the Forest Flux service platform sustainable beyond the end of the project.