Speaker
Description
Demand and price for logging residues in Sweden have increased due to the security situation in Europe and ambitions for energy independence and low‑carbon energy systems. Accurate information on the volume and spatial distribution of logging residues from final fellings is therefore highly valuable for contractors, wood fuel suppliers and end‑users (heating and combined heat‑and‑power plants). More than 15 years ago, Skogforsk developed a system for forecasting and positioning logging residue volumes at stand level using harvester production files. Implemented through the calculation module “hprCM”, the system is used by several forest companies. For accurate forecasts, it is essential that harvester operators correctly distinguish fuel‑adapted areas from non‑adapted areas in the stand. In practice, the harvester and forwarder often need to reinforce strip roads and wet areas with logging residues to prevent soil damage. These adjustments currently rely on manual input via keyboard or touchscreen in the onboard computer.
Within the Swedish Energy Agency-funded project “Improved forecasts of logging residues for precision planning”, we conducted a large‑scale evaluation of the system by comparing forecast data with measurements from heating plants for several hundred wood chip deliveries. The evaluation revealed a large variation in how contractors used the system and in how well the forecasted volumes matched the measured volumes at the plant. This analysis formed the basis for developing improvements to the system.
One of our proposed solutions is to automate the registration process by using sensor technologies in modern harvesters. We carried out a field study in central Sweden, combining machine data with high‑accuracy ground‑truth measurements. Through this study, we identified key variables for automating the registration process. In the mid‑term, if implemented, automated registration of logging residue volumes can reduce the cognitive load on operators, improve the reliability of forest fuel stock levels, and strengthen supply security.
| Keywords | hpr-file; StanForD; planning; supply-chain |
|---|
