Innovative and digital forestrySteinbeis Europa Zentrum established a knowledge platform for sustainable forestry with ROSEWOOD4.0 project

Steinbeis Europa Zentrum established a knowledge platform for sustainable forestry with ROSEWOOD4.0 project

The demand for wood is still high and the supply generated by European logging is far from meeting demand. Resource-saving and sustainable solutions are required here. In addition, there is that every link in the wood value chain - from tree growth to harvesting and processing into end products - is essential for the development of a circular bioeconomy that contributes to a more sustainable forest.

279 Best Practices, 100 EIP-AGRI Practice Abstracts, 5 Roadmaps

With the EU project ROSEWOOD4.0, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum has established a platform for technology and knowledge transfer for innovative and digital timber and forestry. 21 partners from 18 countries contributed to this extensive knowledge platform with 279 best practices and innovations on digital solutions, including five competence centers in five regions, so-called hubs for wood mobilization, which coordinated the project activities together with Steinbeis.

In addition, 100 EIP-AGRI Practice Abstracts and five roadmaps were developed for five regions. In an overall evaluation of regional wood mobilization, weaknesses, strengths and opportunities were examined. Subsequently, roadmaps were proposed for each region with appropriate solutions, projects and initiatives from across Europe to help make the most of available regional timber resources.

ROSEWOOD4.0 which has been coordinated by Steinbeis Europa Zentrum (January 2020 to June 2022) has also developed new digital training formats for forestry education and scientific teaching.

The community of foresters, forest owners and timber experts thus receives an excellent basis for the exchange of knowledge about good practices, technological innovations and training in order to advance digitization in their sector. For example, forest owners can enter their forest data and find out about better forest management online.

The results contribute to increasing the competitiveness of the timber industry and support rural development in line with the European Bioeconomy Strategy.

Some best practices

Biomass Atlas – Web-based forest resource map service

The Biomass Atlas is an open service which collects the location data of biomasses under one, single-user interphase. The service enables calculations of the amount of biomass in a given geographical area, as well as examining the opportunities and restrictions to utilize the biomass. The map user interface is easy to use and allows users to watch, analyze and report biomasses from forestry, agriculture and biodegradable wastes from communities and industry. It is also possible to make scenarios, showing how these things will develop in the future. Biomass Atlas will enhance the economic and environmental performance of forest supply chains.

 Wood Watcher - measure volume of woodpiles and wood transports fast, precise, and easy, Best Practice Romania

Manual wood volume measuring is labour-intensive and time-consuming, however, volumes can be easily measured digitally in minutes on a smartphone using Wood Watcher. The APP offers a complete digital solution to measure wood piles and wood transports using an Android phone, iPhone or iPad. The solution reduces human input error, time and costs. All digital data can be shared and integrated with Wood Watcher Inventory System or using the company's existing inventory and management system.

 Best Practice Spain: C.A.F.E. | Carbon, Aqua, Fire & Eco-resilience Decision Support System

C.A.F.E. is a tool that combines eco-hydrologic dynamic simulation with many-criteria optimization, where the user can carry out forest management according to more than one product at the same time, and choose the relevance of each objective/product. This software is capable of working under different climatic regions thanks to the previous calibration of the eco-hydrological simulation. Furthermore, it is possible to modify the spatial scale moving from plot to catchment, integrating a strong biophysical unit. In the same way, simulating different climatic scenarios is also possible. The result is a group of possible solutions among which forest managers can decide and apply.

ROSEWOOD4.0 has been financed by the EU, Horizon 2020 programme, with 2 million Euro (January 2020 to June 2022, Grant Agreement Nr. 862681). 21 partners from 18 countries have been involved, coming from Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Ukraine. It builds on the results of the previous project ROSEWOOD. Steinbeis Europa Zentrum took over the role of coordination, administrative and financial project management and the development of new business ideas and models in both projects.

Funding for the follower project GOFOREST

In 2022 European Funding once again has been achieved. The project FOREST4EU will start in January 2023 and will be coordinated by The University of Florence. The FOREST4EU consortium includes partners of ROSEWOOD 4.0, among them Steinbeis Europa Zentrum.

Further information:

„The ROSEWOOD4.0 project was very valuable to us and it is very much in our interest to follow up and deepen the experiences, which have been enabled by Steinbeis Europa Zentrum. They did a very good job, connecting a lot of stakeholders and experts for innovation in forestry. We got valuable contacts with practitioners and experts from other countries, as well as an overview of existing digital solutions for sustainable wood mobilization. Additionally, based on the Business Idea Creation Workshops carried out by the project, two proposals, developed by Holzcluster Steiermark and inspired by selected best practices and innovations, have been funded by the ERASMUS+ program and the Austrian National Forest Fund.“

Visnja Koscak, Holzcluster Steiermark GmbH

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Dr. Anthony Salingre
Dr. Francisco Javier Casado Hebrard
Contact us

Contact us!

Dr. Anthony Salingre
Dr. Francisco Javier Casado Hebrard

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