PhD in Forestry

About the Project/nProject details/nThe forestry industry in New Zealand, with NZ$5.89 billion in annual export revenue, is under pressure due to cyclones and tropical storms. Sales are arranged ahead of harvest using estimates of wood production constrained by UAV and Airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) surveys. Due to weather conditions, it is unsafe for several days to months after a cyclone or tropical storm to use these technologies and/or visit the affected area to evaluate storm-related tree damage. Therefore, to support sales planning and the safety of foresters working in the field, there is a need to quickly quantify the damage to forest plantations after a cyclone or a tropical storm. There is unrealised potential in using multi-modal computer vision methods that synthesis multi-source Earth Observation data for this application.