Project update: Connecting forests, mills and buildings [AU]
Friday 31 Jul 2026
ARC Advance Timber Hub Project “An Open-Data
Framework for Forest-to-Building Value Chain Mapping” is
addressing a major challenge for Australia’s forest and wood
products sector: how to better understand, visualise and coordinate data
across the entire value chain – from forest resource through
processing to buildings.
Project Leader, Associate Professor Joe Gattas, from The University
of Queensland School of Civil Engineering, presented at the FWPA Webinar
– Navigating a Changing Landscape: Challenges, Opportunities, and
Innovation in the Timber Industry, on the 21st April 2026. Below is
a summary of the projects research outlined in the webinar presentation.
Why this research matters?
Research and data relevant to timber supply, processing and use are
currently spread across many institutions, projects and datasets. This
makes it difficult for industry, government and researchers to:
- See how domestic timber resources are really being used
- Identify inefficiencies and lost opportunities across the supply
chain
- Test how changes in forestry, processing or building design affect
outcomes such as resource efficiency, supply resilience and local
manufacturing capability
This project responds by creating an open, integrated data framework
that supports clearer communication, better decision‑making and more
coordinated action across the sector.
What the project has achieved so far?
Measuring Timber Consumption
Early work has explored different ways to measure timber consumption in
buildings.
- A geospatial “Timber Tracker” mapped timber volume
per building across regions, helping separate housing density from
timber use. While visually powerful, it offered limited insight for
decision‑making.
- A “trees per building” material flow analysis
followed timber from forest through sawmilling into a typical house,
revealing the significant gap between the timber seen in a finished
building and the processing effort required to produce it. This
highlighted how grade recovery and product choices significantly affect
resource efficiency.
Together, these early studies helped reframe timber use as a system‑wide
issue, not just a building‑level metric.
More >>
Source & image credit: Arc Advance Timber Hub
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