New advanced forest mapping and age assessment tool launched

New advanced forest mapping and age assessment tool launched

Friday 16 May 2025

Indufor Asia Pacific and Scion announce the release of ForestInsights, a new geospatial platform designed to deliver precise forest boundary maps and stand age information.

The platform aims to provide core geospatial layers that detail the location, size and age profile of New Zealand’s plantation forest estate - enabling better-informed decision-making for investors and policymakers.

ForestInsights leverages advanced deep learning techniques applied to high-resolution aerial photography to enhance the delineation of forest boundaries. These boundaries are then segmented into age classes using a combination of satellite and LiDAR data analysis.

The platform features three core data layers:

Forest Boundaries - Mapping the full extent of planted radiata pine forests
Harvest Year - Tracking of annual harvesting activity, with current data covering January 2022 to January 2025.
Age Class - Segmentation of forest boundaries by year of establishment

According to the developers, ForestInsights is a dynamic and continually evolving tool, with datasets updated annually to reflect new afforestation and harvesting events. This ensures ongoing access to current, reliable data — essential for wood supply forecasting, investment analysis, and sector development.

ForestInsights is currently available for selected regions in New Zealand, with planned expansion into Chile and Uruguay later this year.

Click here to visit the website.

Source & image credit: Indufor Asia Pacific

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