The course aims to address the fundamental principles of sustainable forest management and the role of digital management in monitoring and analyzing forest as a support to the actions needed to achieve environmental sustainability objectives. After these premises, the course aims to develop skills in the management of forest geospatial data, including the collection, organization, manipulation and integration of data from different sources. Acquire knowledge of geomatics technologies used for the digital management of forest landscapes, including geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, GNSS and 3D modeling. Apply geomatics methods for the analysis and monitoring of forest consistency, including the assessment of forest composition and structure, tree species distribution and identification of habitats of community importance. Learn to use geospatial data and remote sensing techniques to assess the health status of forests, including the identification of insect infestations, forest diseases and fires.

Knowledge and understanding
The course aims to develop in students’ knowledge and understanding skills, such as:
• know and understand which technologies are useful for the analysis of forest systems for applications such as forest inventory;
• know and understand the techniques and technologies that can be used to analyze the spatial and temporal variability of forest ecosystems, by exploiting change detection and time series analysis based on the use of multispectral indices;
• know and understand the methods of development and application of forest geomatics techniques (precision forestry) for sustainable forest management.

Applied knowledge and understanding
The course will allow to apply knowledge and understanding, allowing the student to:
• know and use the main digital systems of proximal sensing for the inventory of forest resources and the acquisition of ground truth;
• know and use the main sensors on board satellite, aerial, drone and terrestrial platforms suitable for precision forestry;
• know and use cloud-based platforms for the analysis of the temporal and spatial variability of forest ecosystems;
• know and use the techniques for the implementation of forecasting models and spatially explicit estimation of the main attributes of forest ecosystems;
• know and use the techniques for mapping and estimating the severity of forest fires.

Making judgements
The course will allow to develop critical sense and the ability to independently formulate judgments at various levels, such as:
• hypothesize monitoring protocols and types of sensors to be used for the inventory of forest resources;
• identify the factors limiting forest growth and the main factors of forest degradation;
• propose effective digital data management for the purposes of forest restoration efforts and sustainable forest management.

Communication skills
The course aims at the development and application of communication skills, such as:
• having the ability to explain the knowledge acquired in a simple and exhaustive way even to non-expert audiences;
• being able to present original works and manuscripts using the Italian or foreign language in an appropriate and correct way;
• using an appropriate and updated technical forestry vocabulary.

Learning skills
The course aims to consolidate self-learning skills, allowing for example:
• to activate a program of continuous updating of one's knowledge;
• to independently identify the ways to acquire information;
• to identify and use the most useful and reliable sources of information and data for personal professional purpose;
• to participate profitably in upgrade courses, masters, seminars, etc.