FOREST MANAGEMENT
Parc Natural de la Serra de Collserola has a long-term forest management plan to reduce the amount of biomass in the park as a way of preventing fires and increasing the amount of biodiversity and the health of the forest. If biomass is reduced strategically in Valldaura, there is less risk of fires and gives other species the opportunity to thrive in the forest and a greater biodiversity of flora, which in turn increases the biodiversity of fauna.
The idea of cutting the trees to give opportunity to life sounds contradictory and may be if not done correctly. The MAEB team learned about responsible forest management in order to select pine trees within Valldaura, to gradually meet the 40% reduction of biomass that Parc Natural de la Serra de Collserola requires. The team decided to cut pines as these are a colonizing species that have long outcompeted other species in the forest, considering it essential to increase the biodiversity in the park.
SELECTION OF TREES
Earlier in the week, Gerard Passol (also known as Dr. Árbol), gave students guidelines about how to read and understand the trees as well as the forest. The team learned basic rules to assess which were the best trees to cut by primarily evaluating the ecology, value, and access of a tree.
ASSESSMENT AND PHOTOGRAMMETRY
After learning these rules of thumb, MAEB students surveyed the forest for the best tree candidates. Each student assessed and documented by marking their tree, providing the geolocation, and taking a series of pictures.
To document properly the trees for 3D modelling, over 60 pictures were taken radially for each tree. The students then proceeded to introduce these photographs into Agisoft Metashape to use photogrammetry in order to create meshes of their trees that could be integrated into Rhino for modelling.
Forest Management: Assessment, Selection, and Photogrammetry is a project of IaaC, Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, developed at Masters in Advanced Ecological Buildings in 2019/2020 by:
Students: MAEB 2019/2020
Faculty: Daria Bychkova & Michael Salka
17.10.2019
