The next generation of forest maps - adapting a Nordic success story across the globe

From the positive experience with open forest map data in Sweden and Finland, it’s obvious that offering the same solution world-wide would
revolutionize forest management and business across the globe. The management of forest in the Nordic countries can of course be improved, but the
fastest solution for climate change mitigation is to offer all other countries some of the opportunities that the forestry sector in Sweden and Finland
have benefitted from during the initial digitalisation age. In the proposed project, we will develop a new hierarchical decision-making system for
efficient forest mapping flexible utilising a broad scale of remote sensing data sources, where hierarchical levels consist of remote sensing data with
different resolutions. Here, we will use modern AI methods to form a new hierarchical system. The developed system will then be backed by the
results from traditional computer vision methods such as texture analysis, saliency, and probabilistic object representation. The power and strength in
the proposed research project is that we can use forest data and forest maps of Sweden and Finland as test beds to benchmarking the methodology
to be developed in the project. We strongly believe that the project largely will contribute to mitigate climate change, strengthen biodiversity and other
societal values, and create new business models through the development of a new methodology for the next generation of forest maps. Our vision is
to adapt the Nordic success story of open forest map data across the globe, benefiting from innovative AI technology and integrated use of remote
sensing and field data.