Service summary
Deforestation is a threat to the world’s forests. Every minute, 48 football fields of forest are lost globally and the REDD+ initiative aims to reduce this deforestation. In order to enable timely interventions of illegal logging, rapid access to deforestation alerts is required. Forest Sentinel delivers alerts to the user’s mobile phone within 24 hours of Sentinel-2 image acquisition. Alerts are sent every five days and are pushed to a big data analytics engine where they can be accessed via a userfriendly dashboard. App users who receive the alert can upload photos, voice and text messages and a questionnaire. The head office can see them on the dashboard and trigger appropriate responses to protect the forest. 360° communication via the dashboard and app allows effective liaison with field staff, aided by satellite data.
Customer Benefit
Forest Sentinel enables forest owners to receive rapid deforestation alerts and app user reports that protect their forests and to respond quickly. The app and dashboard support rapid internal communication and effective protection of green assets.
The Expertise
«We are excited to be announcing Forest Sentinel as the winner of the Sustainable Living Challenge. Forests are one of our critical resources as we look to sustainably manage the planet and reduce climate change. Deforestation is a major issue and Forest Sentinel will be the first operational service that will deliver near-real-time deforestation alerts to registered users such as forest managers. This will allow appropriate action to be taken and the incentives for logging illegally to be reduced, seeing Sentinel data protecting our forests and our future. The Catapult and our Challenge partners are looking forward to working with and supporting Forest Sentinel.»
Sam Adlen
Head of Business Innovation
Satellite Applications Catapult
Company info
Prof Heiko Balzter
University of Leicester & National Centre for Earth Observation, UK
hb91@le.ac.uk
