‘Plug And Play’ Forest Asset Monitoring Service For Small and Medium Forest Owners based on Sentinell

Project Information

REFOCUS

Grant agreement ID: 728320

DOI

10.3030/728320

Project closed

EC signature date 24 April 2016

Start date 1 May 2016

End date 30 September 2016

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies – Space

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

AS REACH-U
Estonia

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REFOCUS (‘Plug And Play’ Forest Asset Monitoring Service For Small and Medium Forest Owners based on Sentinell)

Reporting period: 2016-05-01 to 2016-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Forest industry contributed to global GDP by US$47 trillion in 2005 and is projected to grow to almost US$100 trillion by 2030. One of the main challenges today is to find a cost effective monitoring solution to cover millions of hectares of forest and sustain constant monitoring over the area. In forest industry sector the lack of information about the forest is more critical in private forest owner’s side. Small and medium forest owners don’t have resources to decision making (forest cut, forest damages) as the cost for single stand level monitoring is too high.
REFOCUS has the potential to fill this gap in the market and help these entities manage its own assets better. We will access to public Sentinel data for earth observation, analyse such data with accuracies below 1ha in attainable time-frames, and present results into a user friendly interface.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

We have taken advantage of the phase 1 action to fully assess the technological feasibility, evaluate the market trends and determine the business potential of REFOCUS. The needs of different segments of end users and customers have been taken into account, which has led us to revise the concept presented in the phase 1 proposal in terms of final features to be pursued. The risks involved in the technological areas have been fully assessed and measures have been defined to minimise the potential risks derived from the use of cutting-edge technologies. We have fully assessed our operational capacity to complete the envisaged project and have secured external expertise where needed for the next phase. Based on market assessment results we have foreseen the sales for the different segments and developed a road-map for commercialisation that will allow us to cope with the expected demand. Our innovative business model will allow to reach all target segments, by defining a tailor made service.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The results of the feasibility study undertaken during the phase 1 action have endorsed our purpose to pursue the further development of the concept, following the revision of the specifications and update of the business model.
We aim to revolution the forestry sector by offering a remote monitoring service that was hindered before for small-medium forest owners. REFOCUS approach has raised interest not only within SMFO, but also Big players and National Forest Agencies, who will act as early adopters for demonstration purposes. EO is call to be the future of forest monitoring, and SMEs who must lead this transformation.

Web map service for REFOCUS technology