Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Forests provide many benefits such as timber and fiber production and climate mitigation, but their long-term sustainability is increasingly threatened by climate change, evolving markets, and land-use changes. More detailed and accurate information is needed to allow landowners and managers to make economical and climate-smart decisions that will affect the delivery, sustainability, and resilience of forest resources. The goal of the PERSEUS (Promoting Economic Resilience and Sustainability of the Eastern US Forests) project is to provide sound science, outreach, and educational opportunities that lay the foundation for a major fundamental change in forestry. More specifically, PERSEUS aims to (1) create a set of digital tools and wall-to-wall forest mapping products that will provide detailed and near real-time measurements, (2) build and apply a framework to visually represent current and future forest trends, (3) engage with stakeholders to develop climate-smart management practices, and (4) establish educational and training programs that support students and professionals in understanding and making use of digital technologies. PERSEUS will provide a foundation for redefining forest inventory in the U.S., while also providing the much-needed ability to predict future forest conditions. Working with stakeholders, PERSEUS will provide: (1) user-friendly tools and programs to better measure and monitor forests like never before; (2) sustainable forest management practices; and (3) a platform to optimize regional efforts in building environmentally and economically sustainable forests, especially on private lands in rural America. Moreover, the project will train diverse cohorts of students and professionals to build a digitally competent workforce. Successful completion of the project will increase physical goods such as food, water, fuel and timber provided by forest ecosystems, and improve operational efficiency in forests across the eastern U.S. In particular, measurement tools developed by PERSEUS will modernize and inform forest management by creating digital inventory tools that empower stakeholders to better understand the potential impacts of their decisions on a local and regional scale. The resulting framework will provide a "digital bridge," enabling landowners and stakeholders with practical tactics and forest simulation to inform decision- and policy-making. Complementing this, the digital forestry educational programs developed by PERSEUS will generate a diverse workforce capable of carrying and optimizing these tools into the future.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
60%
Applied
40%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this PERSEUS project is to provide scientifically sound information, outreach, and educational opportunities that lay the foundation for a paradigm shift in forestry toward data-driven, AI-supported, forest management systems to increase both the provision of ecosystem services and operational efficiency under the uncertainty of climate change. The project has four specific objectives.Obj. 1 (Research) - Develop, evaluate, and integrate sensors, multi-stream data, and AI algorithms to create a set of digital tools and wall-to-wall coverage data that will provide refined, near real-time, and spatially-explicit measurements. We will develop novel data acquisition systems and data analytics to better measure and monitor timber and fiber production, GHG mitigation (carbon sequestration, wildfire fuel assessment), and other ecosystem services for every acre across the eastern US.Obj. 2 (Research) - Leverage Obj. 1 to construct and apply an integrated framework for modeling current and future forest ecosystem service trends under climate change for multi-objective optimization at the landowner scale, while providing multi-stakeholder simulations and tradeoff analyses of forest management at the regional scale. We will develop a generalized simulation/optimization framework to inform regionally appropriate climate adaptation and resilience solutions.Obj. 3 (Extension) - Engage stakeholders to develop climate-smart management practices that can improve the sustainability and resilience of forest ecosystems in the eastern US, based on outcomes from Obj. 1 and 2. We will deploy a use-inspired, co-production model of research and extension to facilitate both: (a) the successful development of the simulation/optimization system and (b) the actual adoption of climate-smart management practices by stakeholders to build environmentally and economically sustainable forests, especially on private lands in rural America.Obj. 4 (Education) - Develop a digitally-competent mindset in students and professionals for climate-smart natural resources management. We will actively train or retrain diverse cohorts of students and professionals through immersive learning experiences and online learning opportunities to modernize a skilled workforce. We will target recruitment at underrepresented minorities and underserved rural communities to diversify the voices engaged in forestry and to upskill those typically overlooked for such opportunities.
Project Methods
EffortsObjective 1: Measurement Automation: PERSEUS will develop scalable automated data capture with integration of multi-modal, multi-platform, and multi-temporal data to assist climate-smart forest management practices and decision making. As indicated by our survey, different stakeholder groups have different needs, skills, and resources for inventory automation. PERSEUS will create tools that are tailored towards each user group's conditions as well as previously identified barriers to adoption. Stakeholders will be actively involved in the tool development, GUI, and general usability.Objective 2: Model Integration & Application: PERSEUS will create a multi-model ensemble that is locally calibrated and capable of projecting multiple forest ecosystem services under a range of conditions. This is achievable through critical linkages to the multi-scale data products from Obj. 1 and the broader simulation/optimization framework outlined in the tasks below.Objective 3: Informed and Engaged Management: We use a co-production model to identify ecosystem services that are valued by different types of landowners and their motivations to take individual or collective management actions. We will use these values, motivations, and actions to inform the development and implementation of optimized climate-smart management systems that increase the capacity of forest production and ecosystem services.Objective 4: Digitally-Competent Mindset: PERSEUS will develop an education framework to meet the foundational needs of inclusion and digital competency by incorporating the following key attributes: 1) Integrated transdisciplinary training: students from different majors/backgrounds will have opportunities to work together and take courses from different academic units. 2) Flexible multi-tiered pathways: the framework will have built-in flexibility that can be tailored for both undergraduate and graduate students and for degree or course-oriented objectives. We will develop digital forestry micro-credential badges centered around learning modules and asynchronous short courses, and undergraduate and graduate courses to supplement existing programs (e.g., Georgia's GIS major, Maine's GIS concentration, and Purdue's digital natural resources minor). And 3) Employment-ready and workforce-friendly education: we will build curriculum and provide education opportunities to meet national workforce needs in digital forestry and natural resources.EvaluationInternally, PERSEUS will employ semi-annual surveys of project participants to ensure effective leadership, communication, and outcomes delivery. The overall project and specific objectives will be assessed on outcome-based metrics with emphasis on milestone achievements and key deliverables evaluated using both self- and team-based assessment methods. PERSEUS will use social and direct epistemic network analysis to assess team dynamics and performance. To ensure full transparency and openness in communications, anonymity will be prioritized with online feedback forms always available to all team members.