While wood as a commodity has accompanied mankind for some time, it is seldom accounted for as being high-tech. Modern forestry dates back to the 18th century, when the principle of sustainability was first introduced to the industrial society to counter wood shortage. Nowadays, sustainability is oft-cited, though with little consequences. It is the uniqueness of a biological production that prevents its adoption to the conventional industry. Renewable base materials that are otherwise inaccessible are transformed into usable biomass.
Wood, albeit it has been utilized for thousands of years, now reinvents itself with new processing technologies in combination with other disciplines. The variety of the material makes it on the one side applicable to many technological questions, but also difficult to handle on the other side. For example, thirty-story wooden constructions are possible as of today. Yet a restrictive legislation and inexperience forestall the sight of such buildings. Raw timber is merely the starting point and it is up to interdisciplinary teams to exploit its versatility.
The management of forests is subject to change as well. Timber harvest was mechanized with the advent of harvester machines. Microcontrollers and real time–mensuration capabilities have automated the on-site processing. Nonetheless, wood production conflicts with other demands on forests, e.g. the preservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services, or recreational functions.
This talk leads the audience from the merits of forestal production to the old and the new management of forests and concludes with a discussion about the next generation of forestry, forestry 4.0.
About the Presenter
Nils Knüppel, third-year student, Department of Forest Sciences
Nils Knüppel is a sixth-semester student of forest sciences and particularly interested in making forestry commercially more attractive. So, he focuses on logging operations, which greatly account for total production costs, and wood technologies, which great potentials for added value are inherent to. To complement the supply chain of wood, he also studies process engineering in his fourth semester as a sideline. Nils teaches in turns applied statistics and applied computer sciences at Dresden University of Technology, and is a member of the student representatives in Tharandt.
THEORY MEETS PRACTICE 