Two B.C. companies collaborate on techniques to create accurate forest inventories at lower cost

Today Foresight and FPInnovations announced that Object Raku Technology, with its project partner Forsite Consultants Ltd., has been selected as the winner of the FPInnovations – Foresight Challenge (formerly the ARCTIC Innovation Challenge). These companies have been awarded a $200,000 contract to further advance technologies and techniques for rapidly producing more accurate and more detailed LiDAR-based forest inventories.

The partners will develop and test a new hybrid LiDAR approach that uses area-based and individual tree-based LiDAR inventories. When combined with traditional survey plot and terrestrial LiDAR data, this information will accurately identify tree species, stem counts, and diameters, leading to a much better understanding of the ecological and economic value of our forests.

The results of the field trial will include reference data, methodologies, and sample inventories. It is anticipated that there will be a rapid adoption of the new methodologies by the forest sector. This should result in a broader availability of best-in-class forest inventories, leading to better resource management and efficiencies for the companies operating in the sector and for the public.

Foresight is currently running six successful Challenge Dialogues in the energy, forestry, and bioenergy sectors. The Foresight Challenge program accelerates the adoption of transformative clean technologies by bringing together industry, entrepreneurs, and the public sector to find and fund solutions for resource-sector challenges in western Canada. It is funded with support from Western Economic Diversification (WD) and Innovative BC (formerly BCIC).