Science and Research

• The primary objective of the Department’s research activities, which cover a wide range of disciplines, is to improve process coordination and management at different spatial and temporal scales of forest planning using geoinformation technologies to support sustainable economic, environmental and socially acceptable decision-making processes in the forestry sector.
• Research in ‘biometrics and forest modelling’ focuses on methods for optimising the acquisition of biometric data and its advanced analysis and use, particularly as regards forest ecosystem growth process models using growth simulators. Recently, we developed several dendrometric models for preparatory or introduced tree species.
• A key focus of our research in ‘dendrometry, forest growth science and management’ over recent years has been the development of sustainable forest models and models based on non-pastoral forms of management, including forests with a coppice component, i.e. low and medium forests. Our research focuses primarily on the stability and production of such forest types, the design and optimisation of data collection methods for forestry planning, studies on responses to educational interventions, responses to stress in the form of reduced rainfall and the impact of such management models on environmental biodiversity.

• Last but not least, we examine the potential impact of global climate change on forest ecosystems in the Czech Republic and the development of easily implementable adaptation strategies to climate change across the range of natural conditions found in the Czech Republic.
• Our research in geodesy, GIS and remote sensing focuses on advanced methods of data collection in forest stands and the wider landscape using ground and airborne laser scanning, satellite imagery and unmanned aerial vehicles. Subjects include the use of unmanned aerial systems, photogrammetry and laser scanning in forest inventory, the use of spectroscopic data for vegetation health analysis and classification of tree species, mapping of relief and landscape change and the creation of 3D models of linear structures and small water features using terrestrial laser scanning and ground-based photogrammetry. Techniques for the detection of different objects using machine learning and artificial intelligence methods are also being developed.

Forest Management