Drought-induced foliage browning on European hop-hornbeam (lower part) and European beech (upper part) in 2022 on the west face of Monte Generoso (Ticino) (Photo: Fulvio Giudici).
Drought-induced foliage browning on European hop-hornbeam (lower part) and European beech (upper part) in 2022 on the west face of Monte Generoso (Ticino) (Photo: Fulvio Giudici). Forests are under pressure and rapidly changing. In order to be able to react to these changes, forest monitoring is of crucial importance. The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL launched an initiative (SwissAIM) to improve forest monitoring. A new study sheds light on why the initiative is needed. Lead author and WSL scientist Marco Ferretti explains the initiative and why it is important. FF: Marco Ferretti, why did you launch the Advanced Inventorying and Monitoring for Swiss Forests (SwissAIM) initiative? MF: The information needs related to forests have changed and expanded. In Switzerland, we can build on the strong basis offered by the Swiss National Forest Inventory and other national monitoring programs. However, climate change caused repeated and more frequent extreme events like droughts, which changed our information needs about forests. We need to monitor our forests more frequently, more comprehensively, and possibly more cost-effectively than before. For example, many intensive and valuable forests measurements are located outside a statistically representative sampling framework, which limits the possibility to extrapolate their results. If the same measurements are located on the same set of representative sites and complemented with sensors and proximal and remote sensing techniques, forest monitoring will gain an enormous added value. This is the idea behind SwissAIM: Building on existing monitoring infrastructure to stay a step ahead. FF: For whom is the initiative important?
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