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Research


A Comprehensive list of all research articles is available here.

Precision Forestry (PF) provides for additional quality information about forests and the manufacturing of forest products. It facilitates planning, site-specific forest management activities, operations to improve wood product quality and fibre utilization, to reduce waste and increase profits. PF makes use of several key technologies, such as GPS/GIS/RS.

The Integrated Land Use Management Initiative, or "Green Landscapes", is a concept that spatially integrates different strategies and economic demands within the same region and includes all land use. In this context, it plays a fundamental role in Africa, as it is understood that not only one, but a variety of treatment options or "management paths" may potentially be suitable for each individual land parcel in the landscape. Each path is characterized by a succession of specific management activities, and the ultimate aim is to identify an optimum combination of management paths for the landscape as a whole. This form of adaptive management provides a suitable basis for designing forested landscapes.

The Biomass and Biofuel Production Initiative, or "Power SA", aims at providing all the necessary information on biomass and biofuel production in a South African and African context. It covers the value-added chain of production, from the plant to the product of biomass and biofuels. This entails a wide range of expertise, from remote sensing, stand management for biomass production in plantations, agro-forests, harvesting and transport logistics, processing technology and raw material quality considerations, to ecologic implications on the local and global level as well as the socio-economic implications. The department will focus future research work on the integration of these fields of expertise for the concise management of biomass and biofuel production. The aim is to contribute to the optimization of resource use and the mitigation of climate change.

Wood quality may be the most important aspect of the value added chain of wood production, but is also one that is least understood. The optimization and effective management of the value added chain and its individual links are only possible with sound knowledge of the factors influencing wood properties during tree growth, harvesting, storage, drying and subsequent conversion processes.  It also depends on the quality of the assessment process itself. A holistic approach is therefore required, one that includes modeling, simulation and novel methods of wood quality determination and product performance testing.  Thus, the overriding objective is to understand and optimize wood quality throughout the value added chain of wood production.  With the addition of conventional tree breeding as a focus area, the department is now able to monitor wood quality throughout the lifecycle of the tree and timber product.