Irish software company Treemetrics has announced a major Euro 1.2 million contract agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA), to roll out a pioneering Tree Growth analytics and monitoring system, which includes a unique measurement sensor that tracks the growth and health of trees.
The ‘Tree sensor’ has been designed to monitor ‘minute’ increases in growth of the tree. The ground-breaking solution creates a mesh network which effectively creates a ‘digital forest’ and the resultant data is transmitted via a Satellite Communications platform, providing real time analytics for forest managers.
There are over 4 billion hectares of forests across the world, and they are increasingly under threat due to deforestation and degradation.
Enda Keane, CEO of Treemetrics, said: “The Internet of Tree’s system was inspired by the Fitbit product and we are leveraging the very latest advancements from the Internet of Things Transformation. Collecting regular up-to-date data in the Forest is expensive given the extent and remoteness of this vital resource. We are on a mission to deploy many millions of forest sensors around the world to better understand forest growth and enable more sustainable management. The new sensor and supporting communication system, is a world first for the forestry industry, and promises to transform global monitoring and enable deeper understanding of forest growth.”
