Do digital twins belong in the forest?

Digital twins are increasingly used in factory settings to monitor and control production processes. Mistra Digital Forest is currently investigating how digital twins could be used to improve the dialogue between forest stakeholders, and to ensure that all stakeholders have an equal opportunity to participate in decision-making.

It all started when two researchers from completely different backgrounds met at the Mistra Digital Forest programme conference. One is a professor of forestry planning, and the other is an associate professor of informatics with a special interest in digitalisation processes within organisations. Despite their different backgrounds, they share a curiosity about how new technology can be applied in forestry. This led them to the idea of investigating how digital twins could be used in the forest as a part of Mistra Digital Forest.

A digital twin is a virtual copy of a forest area, continuously updated with real-time data. Unlike static models, digital twins enable bidirectional communication, allowing users to influence physical reality and visualise the consequences of various forestry-related decisions.

– Digital twins are increasingly used in factory settings, but they are relatively unexplored in forestry. The challenge lies in the forest being a natural environment, where interactions differ significantly from the relatively predictable factory setting. We are exploring how digital twins can support stakeholder dialogue in the Swedish forest, says Daniel Nylén, of the Swedish Center for Digital Innovation (SCDI). He is an associate professor of informatics at Umeå University and one of the initiators of the venture.

Initially, the focus is on reviewing existing research on digital twins in natural environments and through stakeholder interviews, understanding the needs they might be able to fulfill.

‘Avoid talking over each other's heads’

The idea is that virtual representations of how the forest looks today, and how it would be affected by various measures, will facilitate negotiations on the future of the forest. Christian Syk, business developer in remote sensing and forest planning at Holmen says:

– I can see many possibilities for digital twins in forestry planning, but what particularly interested us was how they could be used in the dialogue about the forest. The more clearly we can describe the reality on the ground, the more uncertainty we remove from the dialogue with stakeholder groups. We can avoid talking over each other's heads,’ he says:

– The demand for this kind of tool has become more important with the growing emphasis on social values in forest certification. What we are looking for in this context is easily accessible support, even for people who are not active in forestry.

Could increase the legitimacy of decisions about forests

There are existing tools that can serve as a kind of breeding ground for digital twins. Examples include a co-planning tool used in forestry companies' dialogue with the reindeer herding industry, and Sweden's leading forestry decision support system, Heureka. The next step for the project is to develop a prototype.

– A digital twin can facilitate dialogue processes by helping us deal with the challenges that come from having different backgrounds, different education and sometimes even being in disagreement about the facts. We need to find solutions that are useful for, and relevant to, all stakeholders. There are many expectations about how the forest should be used, and all these perspectives have to be included. If digital twins can create the conditions for this to happen, they can also increase the legitimacy of the decisions that are made about the forest, says Karin Öhman, professor of forest planning at SLU, who is the other initiator of this venture.