Forestry Commission using aerial photography to manage forests

17 February 2020


The Forestry Commission has disclosed that it is using aerial photographs to manage and regulate public and private forests throughout the UK.

As part of the Aerial Photography for Great Britain (APGB) contract with the Geospatial Commission, Bluesky and Getmapping are providing imagery for the government organisation.

The aerial photography is used to complement ordnance survey mapping and the creation of 3D visualisations to communicate woodland management projects.

In a statement, Bluesky stated: “As network and GI technologies have improved and more data has become available the Forestry Commission has embraced the cloud. This allows it to deliver the APGB imagery, alongside other types of geospatial data, to users in all parts of the business.

“The imagery can be viewed by all staff within the organisation via a simple to use web browser; Forester Web. Sitting alongside Ordnance Survey mapping, the photography is used for a wide range of purposes, providing real-world context and detail for grant applications and felling permissions, for example.”

Bluesky stated that the imagery and data management tools offered in the forester web are also utilised in verification and to update spatial data relating to the management of the national forest estate.

The National Forest Inventory is updated with the help of APGB data which gives up-to-date information about the size, distribution, composition and condition of the forests and woodland in the UK. The information is important for creating and monitoring policies and guidance to support sustainable forest management.