Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

This 3-year proposal focuses on developing data-layers and tools useful for forest management operations planning and knowing how forest growth and soil conditions vary across entire forest management areas at the scale of machine operations. Already, the growing availability of LiDAR-generated point cloud data has produced high-resolution forest metrics and terrain elevation data layers. These layers can now be used to determine how soil conditions and properties affect forest growth from ridge tops through valleys at, say, 20 x 20 m resolution. Doing this is further enabled by using LiDAR-derived and hydro-conditioned bare-earth digital elevation models (DEMs) to determine how soil type and properties vary by landform from ridge tops to valleys and depressions. This is to be done in a manner that is consistent with other data layers and maps that inform about bedrock and surficial geology, climate, forest inventory, roads, streams, lakes, and shores. To do this requires the development of (i) a terminologically consistent soil database by landform and soil type; (ii) a methodology that automatically adjusts and improves on soil polygon delineation based on exact hydrographic and hydro-geological expectations in keeping with theoretical, statistical, and practical considerations. The proposed research centers on a case-study cooperation with J.D. Irving, Limited in New Brunswick, with the additional objective to generate mapping tools that can be used operationally to enable soil-optimized decision making in terms of plantation establishment and tending. Altogether, there are three research objectives: (i) to develop a terminologically unified aspatial soil database from existing soil survey reports and other data sources for New Brunswick; this includes the development of topographically and hydrologically correct soil layers, by landform, (ii) to use the results from objective (i) for growth and yield site index modelling and mapping, by plantation species, at 20 x 20 m resolution, and (iii) to formulate a GIS-based tool for soil and road trafficability risk assessments. While centered on J.D. Irving, Limited operations, the research outcomes will have wider applications across New Brunswick and elsewhere. *