UNITE is a competence center where high-quality research with societal impact is pursued. It is also one of the Academy of Finland Finnish Flagship Programmes. The name UNITE stands for “Forest-Human-Machine Interplay” and our motto is “Building Resilience, Redefining Value Networks and Enabling Meaningful Experiences”.
Our mission is to make Finland the world leader in applying forest-based bio-economy know-how, geospatial technologies, and gamification. We aim to do this through our four thematic areas:
Current level of forest data does not harness the possibilities of digitalisation and automatisation
We create innovative technologies that will towards building an accurate digital replication of the boreal forest at individual tree level. We enhance the use of new sensors and intelligent algorithms for high quality positioning and plot-level characterization inside canopy. By this we seek to support automatisation in forestry and to provide accurate data for decision making.
Decision making in forestry lacks sufficient knowledge required for precision forestry
We develop agile knowledge creation methods based on multitemporal remote sensing and forest data. Building on remote sensing, we provide unprecedented information on the characteristics of single trees, relationships between trees and relationships between forests and environment. We also provide information for monitoring the changes from tree level to landscape level and in varying temporal scales. We will also provide knowledge on the uncertainties related to these characteristics. This knowledge can be used for building up better decision support.
Currently available decision support tools in forestry do not address risks and uncertainties
For informed decision making, we provide science-based, smart solutions and tools that can address risks and uncertainties for different management strategies. This knowledge can be used for boosting sustainable, resource-efficient forest operations and logistics, forest resilience, and multifunctional management and use of forests.
There is lack of engagement of people in todays applications and services of forest decision making, recreation, and yet to be discovered areas
We create new paradigms, knowledge and solutions of meaningful and sustainable human-forest-technology interplay. We do this by researching gameful forest interactions: how different human-nature practices and experiences can be gamified. We expect exciting new openings in the areas of decision-making, consumer practices, recreation and wellbeing, business models and forest data management.
Tech and applications we employ
Workpackages and who to contact
WP1 Disruptive technologies for capturing forest ecosystem structure and functioning, leader Juha Hyyppä
WP2 Agile knowledge creation from the forest data, leader Annika Kangas
WP3 Smart decision support for human actions in space and time, leader Antti Kilpeläinen
WP4 Gameful forest interaction for meaningful experiences and practices, leader Juho Hamari
Captain of UNITE Heli Peltola