ECO-Bridge - Joint cross-border environmental information system

Start year: 2018
End year: 2020
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Patners: Energy Efficiency Centre (ANO EEC): lead partner, Arbonaut Oy, Karelian Centre for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Karelian CHEM) a part of the All-Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet), Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI)

The project ECO-Bridge - KA5016 is aimed at fulfillment of such priorities of Karelia CBC Programme as “Increased environmental awareness” and “Improvement of peoples’ physical living environment”, by increasing environmental awareness of citizens, authorities and public organisation through introduction of joint approaches and principles of environmental monitoring in Finland and Karelia. Current problem is there is no accurate real time data about water and air quality to be comparable between Finland and Karelia. In this project, a strategy and an Action Plan for joint Karelian-Finnish activities will be developed, as well as technologies and methodology to better manage trans-boundary environmental data will be improved.

Expected Results / Outputs:

  1. Joint Action Plan for sustainable operation of joint environmental monitoring in trans-boundary areas is elaborated.
  2. Modernized monitoring network and facilities in the pilot territories
  3. Electronic internet-based platforms for monitoring data exchange are introduced on both sides of the border.
  4. Higher level of knowledge of the employees of the partner organizations in modern requirements, methods and technologies for further development of the environmental monitoring systems

More information can be found from the project website: http://kareliacbc.fi/en/projects/joint-cross-border-environmental-monitoring-system-ka5016#project

ArboEdu – Finnish education technology going global

Start year: 2018
End year: 2020
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Providing students with sufficient amount of activity during school days is nowadays recognized as a challenge in many countries around the globe. Meanwhile, the progressive education system of Finland and the ed tech solutions developed could offer help to teachers, as well as students, in many corners of the world. So why not sharing the knowledge and experiences of practical outdoor learning tools internationally as well?

ArboEdu – Finnish education technology going global is a development project lead by Arbonaut and funded by the European Regional Development Fund. During the project, the suitability and opportunities of ArboEdu is researched in new market areas. The application will be also presented internationally to different education professionals to see the advantages it could offer for schools outside of Finland.

The ArboEdu – Finnish education technology going global -project is ongoing from June 2018 until June 2020.

Virtual Forest 2.0 – Virtuaalimetsä 2.0

Start year: 2018
End year: 2020
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Partners: Lapland University of Applied Sciences (lead), Arbonaut Oy, Karelia University of Applied Sciences & Tapio Silva Oy

Arbonaut collaborates with Lapland University of Applied Sciences, Karelia University of Applied Sciences and Tapio Silva Oy to further develop Virtual Forest -tool for forest data 3D-visualization. Accessing raw material and planning the utilization of natural resources and the land-use requires new digital tools. There is a need to develop digital products and services for activating forest owners and for guaranteeing prerequisites for operations of forest livelihood.

Virtual forest is a new innovative tool that enables forest data 3D-visualisation and combines forest data with spatial data. Virtual Forest is currently in use in forestry education, but could be utilized also for land use planning, forestry and in timber procurement. During the Virtual Forest 2.0 -project Arbonaut will produce simulated maps that enable realistic visualization of forests. These maps include for example the properties of forest illustrated at the individual tree level, terrain shape based on accurate digital terrain model and forest visibility analysis.

Virtual Forest 2.0 -project is led by the Lapland University of Applied Sciences and financed by the European Regional Development Fund. More information can be found from the European Union EURA2014 -portal.

https://www.eura2014.fi/rrtiepa/projekti.php?projektikoodi=A73945

Fire Brake – Development of forest fire risk assessment capacity and collaboration in the context of climate change

Start year: 2018
End year: 2019
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Partners: Arbonaut Oy (lead) & Vodlozero National Park

The risk for forest and wildland-urban interface fires is acknowledged to increase, as the climate is getting warmer. The situation has direct effect on notonly forest land managers, but also to the general public on the affected regions. Hence, the Fire Brake – KA2013 micro project aims to improved knowledge and collaboration in the field of forest fire risk assessment and management between Finland and Russia. By researching the different entitiesoperating with forest fire risk management from both sides of border, their challenges and resources, it is possible to identify the bottlenecks and areas that need further development and capacity building actions. Increased cooperation between entities within the field will also encourage enhanced share of know-how.

In Fire Brake -project Arbonaut collaborated with a nature protection, research and environmental education establishment,Vodlozero National Park. The project started in October 2018 and all activities were finished by April 2019.

Fire Brake project is a part of the Karelia CBC-Programme. The Programme is financed by the European Union, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Finland. More information can be found from the project website: https://kareliacbc.fi/en/projects/fire-brake-ka2013

Logroad – Innovative forest road data for improving economic accessibility of Boreal forest resources

Start year: 2018
End year: 2019
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Partners: Arbonaut Oy (lead) & Lesnoe Bureau Partner

The Logroad – micro project aims to identify and solve problems related to the construction of forest roads, which have negative impact on the development of the timber industry on both sides of the border. New approaches to planning the construction of forest roads, utilizing new technologies, will facilitate the competitiveness of the logging and transport sector, as well as the timber industry. An extensive network of forest roads will allow to further develop also areas such as tourism, recreation, and picking of non-timber products from the forests.

In Logroad -project Arbonaut collaborated with a forest inventory and forestry planning specialist from Petrozavodsk, Lesnoe Bureau Partner. The project started in October 2018 and all activities were finished by April 2019.

Logroad project is a part of the Karelia CBC-Programme. The Programme is financed by the European Union, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Finland. More information can be found from the project website: https://kareliacbc.fi/en/projects/logroad-ka1024#home

BIOKARELIA - Cross-border tools for biodiversity hotspots preservation via monitoring and prevention of forest fires along Russian-Finnish border

Start year: 2019
End year: 2021
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Partners: Natural Resources Institute Finland (lead), Arbonaut Oy, Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of North Karelia, Lesnoe Bureau Partner, Kostamuksha Nature Reserve and Kalevala National Park, Forest Research Institute of Karelian Research Centre & Directorate for Regional Protected Territories for the Republic of Karelia

The aim of the BIOKARELIA – KA5051 -project is to develop practical tools for biodiversity hotspots preservation via mapping biodiversity values, monitoring and forecasting occurrence of forest fires and wood harvesting along the Russian-Finnish border. The project is collaboration of three organizations from Finland; Natural Resources Institute Finland (the lead partner), Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of North Karelia together with Arbonaut Ltd; and three Russian organizations; Lesnoe Bureau Partner, Forest Research Institute of Karelian Research Centre and Kostamuksha Nature Reserve and Kalevala National Park.

BIOKARELIA project is a part of the Karelia CBC-Programme.The EU logo and the statement “The project is co-funded by the European Union.” More information can be found from the project website: https://kareliacbc.fi/en/projects/biokarelia-ka5051#home

EFFORTE - Efficient forestry for sustainable and cost-competitive bio-based industry

Start year: 2016
End year: 2019
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Partners: Natural Resources Institute Finland (lead), Arbonaut Oy, other partners

EFFORTE is a research and innovation project providing the European forestry sector with new knowledge and knowhow that will significantly improve the possibilities of forest enterprises to assemble and adopt novel technologies and procedures.

The project aims at enhanced efficiency in forest operations, sustainable forestry (i.e. less environmental burden caused by forest operations), an increased forest growth, a cost-competitive bio-based industry and an acceleration of the regional economic development. The project is based on three key elements of technology and knowhow:

  1. Basic understanding of fundamentals of soil mechanics, and terrain trafficability
  2. to realize the potential of mechanization in silvicultural operations
  3. ‘Big Data’ to increase the efficiency of forest operations

EFFORTE researchers will develop and pilot precision forestry applications that, according to industrial project partners, show the greatest potential for getting implemented immediately after the project.

EFFORTE has received funding from the Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 720712.

https://www.luke.fi/efforte/

SUFOGIS - GIS and Remote Sensing for Sustainable Forestry and Ecology

Start year: 2018
End year: 2021
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Partners: University of Aristotle, Thessaloniki, Greece (lead), Arbonaut Oy, other partners

SUFOGIS aims to respond to the needs identified by promotion of sustainable forestry and ecology in Russia and China through improved university-enterprise cooperation by enhancing skills and competences of students and professionals. The project also aims to enforce capacity building in the fields of GIS and remote sensing in higher education institutions in partner countries. The short-term goals are to train staff of the Russia and China organisations, to organise summer courses in order to educate Russian and Chinese students, to develop knowledge transfer guidelines, and to equip the proposed centres.

Read about a training course in Greece in 2019.

Arbonaut will be organising a summer school as well as training for the staff of partner countries' staff, among other things.

More about the project: https://sufogis.volgatech.net

ArboKLIMAT – Arbonaut Partnership in West Africa for active climate change adaptation and mitigation

Start year: 2018
End year: 2020
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Partners: Arbonaut Oy (lead), Platform for Advocacy, Research and Capacity Building for NGO's Africa PRONG

During the project, PRONG will receive training and technical capabilities to support actors in eight countries in West-Africa, by providing them with open source technology based spatial information systems that enable more effective implementation and monitoring of environmental and development policies. The states’ capacity in forest monitoring and for action under the REDD+ program will improve, resulting a reduction in deforestation and a more secure monitoring of carbon sinks.

The project is funded by Finnpartnership, a business partnership programme financed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and managed by Finnfund.

Mellevä - Tool for forest fire forecasting

Start year: 2019
End year: 2020
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Partners: Finnish Forest Centre (lead), Arbonaut Oy, Finnish Meteorological Institute & North Karelia Rescue Services

The Mellevä -project aims to create a mockup -demo for displaying how it is possible to support forest fire prevention using forest inventory data as well as online weather data. The demo is based on earlier development project, during which Arbonaut constructed a fire prevention map covering the area of Lieksa in North Karelia, Finland, based on LiDAR data. In Mellevä -project the idea is to include also current weather situation on the model.

The Mellevä demo allows illustrating the benefits of a decision support system (DSS) for various Rescue Departments, so that a common understanding between stakeholders concerning most effective decision support system for forest fire fighting in Finland can be built. In addition to national development, the project will allow researching opportunities for forest fire know-how export outside of Finland.

Mellevä -project is led by the Finnish Forest Centre and financed by the European Regional Development Fund. More information can be found from Finnish Forest Centre’s website: https://www.metsakeskus.fi/melleva

Digitally Connected Forest Operation Value Chain – ForOps

Start year: 2019
End year: 2020
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Partners: Arbonaut Oy (lead), Lapland University of Applied Sciences, Rajaforest Oy

The aim for the Digitally Connected Forest Operation Value Chain (ForOps) project is to develop a new digital platform promoting enhanced and more efficient cooperation between various forest service providers, individual entrepreneurs and forest owners. The developed end product will aid in division of work in forestry sector, improving the overall capacity to manage and maintain valuable forest resources in East and North Finland.

In ForOps project the main goal is to develop Arbonaut’s ProMS platform in order for it to be used as a “forest work bank”; as a general silvicultural work assignment, tracking and reporting platform. In addition to technical development to the platform, together with the project partners Lapland UAS and Rajaforest the new platform will be tested in real operational environment. The new solution can also be used to manage work outside actual silvicultural operations – this includes for example forest road maintenance planning and management, as well as multiple uses of forest, such as berry-picking or other non-wood product collection purposes.

ForOps -project is financed by the European Commission within the ELMO High Impact Action pilot. More information of the projects can be found from East and North Finland in Industrial Transition (ELMO) website: https://elmoenf.eu/

Access2Forest - Tools for enhancing access to forest resources in cross border bioeconomy

Start year: 2020
End year: 2021
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Partners: Business Joensuu (lead), Arbonaut Oy, Finnish Forest Centre, Riveria, Lesnoe Bureau Partner LLC, Forest Holding Company Karellesprom

Accessibility of forest resources plays a major part in operational planning and operational costs in the forestry sector, both in Finland and even more so in Russia. Forest road planning requires suitable, accurate and objective baseline data. Traditional methods of collecting forest road data by visual inspections and manual measurements are often expensive and not accurate enough. Expensive road construction costs and budget overflows can be avoided by using innovative planning tools and data sources. Hence, the specific objective of the Access2Forest -project is to develop advanced planning technology for the forest logistics and more specifically for forest road construction and maintenance planning.

The main outputs of the project will be

  1. a demo programme for optimizing road network planning and maintenance,
  2. a manual with recommendations for cost efficient approach for planning together with a Master Plan for road maintenance,
  3. task-level work models for excavator work, which leads to more excavator pilots being efficiently trained, evaluated and tutored at their worksite. To achieve the outputs of the project and to have the positive effect on the cross border bioeconomy, the collaboration of multiple Finnish and Russian forestry expertise companies is required.

Access2Forest project is a part of the Karelia CBC-Programme. The EU logo and the statement “The project is co-funded by the European Union.”

MAST - Improving models for predicting forest fires in Finnish conditions

Start year: 2020
End year: 2021
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Partners: Pelastusopisto – Emergency Services Academy Finland (lead), Arbonaut Oy, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finnish Forest Centre, Pohjois-Karjalan pelastuslaitos – North Karelia Rescue Department

Emissions from wildfires can cause adverse health effects on the population that extend very far from the actual fire site. Despite the good situation in Finland, it is essential that the rescue forces have accurate data and tools available for creating situational awareness in case of sudden wildfires. The MAST project is utilizing forest fire research and development carried out in different countries and applying them to suit Finnish conditions and needs.

In the project, more effective methods for creating situational awareness for managing rescue operations in case of wildfires are being developed. The development utilizes existing wildfire models, which are adapted to Finnish conditions by using the open forest information and LiDAR data available from the country. The interpretation of forest information utilizes the algorithms previously developed by Arbonaut for the interpretation of LiDAR data. The Finnish Meteorological Institute implements the development of fire spread models by integrating a wind model, which enables the creation of accurate predictions of the spread of wildfires. Once developed, the new models are studied and tested by the Emergency Services Academy Finland and the North Karelia Rescue Department as part of the management of rescue operations. The results of the project are expected to function as a very effective tool from a resource planning perspective (mission strength, water management, personnel management, and safety).

The MAST project is financed by Palosuojelurahasto – Fire Protection Fund.

MARISKA - Mapping of wildfire risk and prevention maps

Start year: 2021
End year: 2022
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Partners: the Finnish Forest Centre, Emergency Services Academy of Finland

The MARISKA project is funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and follows up the MAST and MELLEVÄ fire-related projects Arbonaut implemented in the past. This project is a joint effort of the Arbonaut Fire Risk team with the the Finnish Forest Centre and Emergency Services Academy of Finland. Our experts are producing static fuel maps for the whole of Finland, so that Finland can prepare for future forest fires prevention and suppression and support firefighting work.

FirEUrisk - Developing a holistic, risk-wise strategy for European wildfire management.

Start year: 2020
End year: 2024
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Partners: Full list of Partners in the Consortium: https://fireurisk.eu/consortium/

Arbonaut is a proud member of the FirEUrisk consortium established for an EU-funded Horizon 2020 program aimed at developing a holistic, risk-wise strategy for European Wildfire Management led by the University of Coimbra, with a budget of 10 million euros and lasting until 2024. In this project, Arbonaut is in charge of integrating FirEUrisk resources with other EU platforms and legacy systems and guiding the development of the public cooperative platform. A tool based on our ArboFiRM and ProMS solutions will be built to display project outputs in a unified user interface on the web and mobile devices. The team will take part in carrying out fire danger assessments, risk-wise landscape, and fuel model development to reduce the probability and potential of ignitions.

Building Food Security Through Agro-Met Innovative Advisory Services (AMIAS), Climate Innovation Challenge

Building Food Security Through Agro-Met Innovative Advisory Services (AMIAS), Climate Innovation Challenge

Start year: 2021
End year: 2022
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Partners: Clean Energy Nepal

Arbonaut is now an innovator in the Climate Innovation Challenge (CIC) of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC). In the awarded pilot project 'Building Food Security through Agro-Met Innovative Advisory Services (AMIAS)', Arbonaut together with a partner Clean Energy Nepal will develop and pilot a GIS web-based platform and its mobile application for local farmers in Nepal and focus on building food security of the farming communities. One of CIC’s aims is to crowdsource disruptive technology solutions to build communities’ resilience against the threat of climate change in South Asia. The CIC is an essential part of the ‘Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CARE) for South Asia’ project, administered by The World Bank and funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Biomass Pellet industry: a clean energy solution for Nepal

Biomass Pellet industry: a clean energy solution for Nepal

Start year: 2019
End year: 2022
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Partners: Bakas Renewable Energy

Arbonaut is a lead Nordic partner in the project “Biomass Pellet industry: a clean energy solution for Nepal” aiming to provide affordable, renewable energy and create employment, well-being, and revenue opportunities for the local communities in the Sarlahi and Mahottari districts. Funded with the Nordic Climate Facility (NCF) grant financed by Nordic Development Fund (NDF), the project is being conducted with the local partner Bakas Renewable Energy. To replace coal and firewood in small industries and households in Nepal and to reduce greenhouse emissions, the sustainable production of biomass wood pellets on an annual basis will be implemented.

After collecting the LiDAR data of the Sagarnath Forest of Nepal, Arbonaut’s team proceeded to produce up-to-date biomass maps and statistics of trees and shrubs from the collected data. In addition, the forest fire risk assessment of the Sagarnath forest was also implemented by our experts. The work is still ongoing.

Developing the National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) in Nigeria

Developing the National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) in Nigeria

Start year: 2021
End year: 2022
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Partners: the Nigerian Conservation Foundation as a sub-consultant

Arbonaut signed a contract with the Nigerian Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (NFCPF) REDD+ Programme, Federal Ministry of Environment to lead a project aiming at the operationalization of the National Forest Monitoring System (NFMS) in Nigeria. Together with the Nigerian Conservation Foundation as a sub-consultant, Arbonaut is assisting Nigeria in development of the Standard Operating Procedures and supports technical teams in testing the NFMS implementation. The project is financed by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) through the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) of The World Bank.