Forest monitoring tools and techniques with special emphasis on tropical forests

Abstract

Environmental researchers and forest practitioners have been using different traditional and advanced methods for forest surveillance, field mapping, and integrated information. The growing concern of threats to natural forests by landscape change, habitat and biodiversity loss, and climate change has shifted the monitoring and ground-truthing efforts toward digitization by transforming data acquisitions, analysis, and integrated research and development methods. Forest management practices through “Digitalization of forest” is a new way of forest conservation, monitoring, and ground truthing in recent years, creating opportunities to improve assessments and monitoring activity. Remote sensing is an omnipresent operational technology increasingly used in forest monitoring by various stakeholders. Integration of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mobile mapping, and Open Data Platforms (ODPs) are important monitoring tools and techniques used by ecologists and conservation scientists for decision-making, prediction models, and restoration activities. The present chapter briefly discusses traditional and advanced forest monitoring and ground-truthing tools and techniques used for data acquisition and analysis in research and development. It also overviews major challenges and recent progress to further find opportunities by stakeholders and practitioners for additional investigation, advancements in research, development, and technology innovation. © 2026 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved..