The Wuudis Service partially developed through DataBio project funding is a technically innovative, open, standardized and significantly cost effective solution for the entire forest ecosystem than current alternatives. Wuudis integrates data from several sources (forest management plans, satellites, drones and open data) by standardizing it, to digitalize the whole process from planting to harvesting and thereafter end-use.
It is a Digital Ecosystem for the management of woodland assets and projects enabling stakeholders networking and interfacing with authority and remote sensing systems and other big data sources:
- Forest management plans and updates in your pocket via mobile app
- Network service enabling data sharing between forest owners, operators, authorities, manufacturers and services related to the forest sector
- Online Marketplace Platform for bidding of timber and biomass sales and forestry care works (harvesting, reforestation, fertilizations etc.) enabling group deals
- Project management service to manage and track any kind of activities in the field not limiting in forestry only
The Wuudis Service developed by Wuudis Solutions Oy is a unique commercial service on the market for forest owners, timber buyers, authorities and forestry service companies. It enables the management of forestry activities and forest resource management through a single tool. The cloud-based platform, with a mobile interface and data in XML, SHAPE and JSON formats, connects forest owners directly with local contractors, authorities and timber buyers. With it, forest owners and other stakeholders can effectively manage, track and monitor their forest resources remotely in real-time. It can be used to obtain real- time information about the forest and its timber resource, track executed silvicultural and harvest activities, plan the needed forest management and other field activities, and bid for care works and timber sales online
The Wuudis Networking feature allows users to create a group inside the Wuudis Service and share forestry and field information flawlessly with the people of choice. The user can define a different level of access for each user, for example a view-only access or an access to do both viewing and editing. Access to the information increases the transparency and effect of mutual decision-making, for example in timberland investment companies
The Wuudis Monitoring feature allows users to collect various data including non-wood products and to monitor any changes in the forest on the Wuudis Service and share this information flawlessly with the people of choice. The user can define a different level of access for each user, for example the view-only access or the access to do both. Access to the realtime information - situation view - improves real time guidance, for example for harvesting operations in high biodiversity sites, while decreasing risks for operational damages due to miscommunication. It also improves bidding through marketplaces, for example for care works or harvesting operations, in particular after storm damage occurred, enabling faster and more organized exploitation operations than at present.
Forestry, Agriculkture
In most European countries, traditional methods for forest management are based on “static” management plans, created at the planting stage and reviewed after long periods (typically 5-10 years). In recent years, these management plans have become a declaration of intentions, including objectives for multifunctional forests (non-wood products and services). However, these plans often lack effective implementation and monitoring methods that allow forest owners, managers and regulators to validate the progress in achieving the target objectives set out in the management plan. Additionally, despite of the velocity of forest data generation (necessarily not quick), the huge surfaces of forest areas justify completely the use and necessity of Big Data tools and techniques.
Wuudis easy data sharing and networking - aims to develop and pilot standardized procedures for collecting and transferring data utilizing the Wuudis Service and DataBio and othet platforms from silvicultural activities executed in the forest. Wuudis, developed by Wuudis Solutions Oy, is a commercial service for forest owners, timber buyers, authorities and forestry service companies for management of forestry activities and forest resource management. The goal is to develop and validate Wuudis’ collaboration features, quality monitoring and social forest platform features in selected pilot areas. In addition, one important goal is also to integrate the Wuudis Service to external services such as map services and authority systems. Forest experts of Finnish Forest Centre are pilot users of Wuudis Service enabling easy data sharing and networking with forest owners while forest visits and consultancy.
The identified customer benefits are:
- Decrease in operating costs. The costs are expected to decrease compared to the baseline with the old equipment investment costs (field computer). Expected decrease by 20% due to saving in time spent on paper works.
- Savings in working time of authority experts:
- Daily routines: Yes, it is expected that user satisfaction improves by 15-20%.
- Revenue/employee productivity: Expected increases by 10%.
- Improvement in data quality
- Sustainability: The users have used the observation functionality for capturing the high biodiversity profile candidates from forest ecosystem. Increases as it captures high bio-diversity profile candidates from forest ecosystem. For example, rear fauna etc.
Data sharing and a collaborative environment enable improved tools for sustainable forest management decisions and operations. Data becomes accessible to forest owners and other end users interfacing with e-contracting, online purchase and sales of timber and biomass (e.g. Metsaan.fi eService and Kuutio.fi). Higher data volumes and better data accessibility increase the probability that the data will be updated and maintained.
The Wuudis Service provides the following improvements respect existing solutions:
- Development of data sharing features for more flexible data sharing
- Development of more flexible collaboration features
- Development of the Wuudis mobile app to enable work quality monitoring in a standardized way (sample plots “kemera” and freely planned by the user)
The work quality monitoring data consists of the following information: forest estate, geometry of compartments, type of the forest work, sample plot locations, measured data per sample plot, measurement averages per compartment, measurement date and user information.
Development of a feature that allows the user to decide what data he/she wants to send back to the authority.
- Development of an interface to the authority system (for example metsaan.fi), which requires a strong user identification.
- Send quality data back to the authority system.
- Development of sharing features to the existent market places if needed.
- Specify all data sources and formats that are needed to accomplish all user requirements (maps, reports, tables, etc.).
- Execution of all integrations that are specified.
The innovations developed in the project have been recognized by Big Data and AI competitions in Europe and, for example, satellite monitoring of forest health has been introduced in the Czech Republic as a part of authority control. The forest standards in place in Finland have helped Wuudis Solutions to build scalable forest information management services, including Spain and the Belgian Wallonia.