CONIFERAS Operational Group: Study of conifers complementary to forest plantations affected by diseases in the Cantabrian coast.

Forest modeling combining the combined prediction of wood volumes and qualities, both from a point of view of size and abundance of defects in the wood, as well as from a mechanical point of view (strength and stiffness characteristics), has not been detected in Spain, although it has been in other countries such as France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand, pioneers in the development of this methodology.

In Spain, Cesefor has developed the first management diagrams that incorporate wood quality for Douglas fir stands in La Rioja. These results were published in 2018 and marked a shift in working and research methods in the forestry sector. Modeling techniques for the ecological suitability or adaptation of a site to a taxon use functions that define, in ecological space, the different relationships between the presence of the taxon and the range of values of the environmental variables considered to explain its distribution. The information needed to generate these functions includes both ground-truth data on the presence or presence and absence of the taxon under analysis, as well as the environmental attributes of the studied territory. These types of models have been used in multiple fields, such as conservation plans.

LiDAR, or airborne laser, has already been successfully used to quantify the timber stock in a specific stand or even a forest region (Blanco et al., 2017; Tomé et al., 2017). The ability to work in grids allows for estimating the quantity of wood available there, the height of green branches, the development of the understory, the risk of felling, etc.

The use of sonic technology has enabled the characterization of the technological properties of masses and the development of predictive models for the modulus of elasticity in different species, both coniferous and hardwood. The use of resistography results in significant savings in time and costs.