Fusion of optical and radar satellite data and AI support for monitoring of clear-cuttings
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Spacemetric AB |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 1 513 659 |
| Project duration | June 2023 - January 2025 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Advanced digitalization - Enabling technologies |
| Call | Advanced and innovative digitalization 2023 - call one |
Important results from the project
The goal was to use radar satellite images to detect clear-cuttings, something which turned out to be possible. The cooperation between the Swedish Forest Agency, Spacemetric and Qamcom was also good. The project´s results will now be made more general in a follow-up project, partly financed by the Swedish National Space Agency. After this project, we may be able to start marketing the method, initially in Sweden, primarily as a software service (Software as a Service).
Expected long term effects
The long-term effects of the project depend on how successful our follow-up project will be. If all goes well, we will succeed in making the method so general for Swedish conditions that we might interest the Swedish Forest Agency in purchasing access to the system in the form of Software as a Service. From this, the step of adapting the methodology to conditions in other countries is not so big, especialy in the other Nordic countries.
Approach and implementation
A production chain was developed for data from ESA´s radar, visible, and infrared satellites. A REST-baserad service was set up to retrieve, format, and process image data from ESA. A database was developed for the situation before and after 1,000 forest fellings in Värmland. An AI algoritm was trained to find felled areas and estimate their areas. Comparisons with the Swedish Forest Agency´s data showed that the method can detect fellings even during winter, where data is often missing today.