Tuesday, July 7, 2026

2:30 PM - 4:00 PM

Room BM.1.33

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Details

Participants need to bring their own laptop to this workshop. This co-design workshop invites participants to engage with the ongoing development of the ForestWard Observatory, a prototype monitoring and evaluation platform created within the EU project FORWARDS. The Observatory aims to provide a pan-European tool to assess and visualize the resilience of European forests under climate change, supporting climate-smart forestry (CSF) decision-making through open data and open-source technologies. The session will begin with two presentations, the first one introducing the needs and expectations of potential users (Kelemen et al. 2024), while the second one explaining the Observatory’s goals, data architecture, and functionalities. This will be followed by interactive discussions and hands-on exploration. Participants will be invited to contribute feedback on usability, data needs, and potential applications, helping to shape the Observatory into a collaborative and user-driven resource for the forestry community. Technically, the ForestWard Observatory integrates a PostGIS backend for efficient geospatial data management and a GeoDjango administrative interface for data governance. Its web-based frontend, built with Leaflet, allows users to visualize, explore, and download datasets, while a TiTiler tileserver dynamically renders raster data for responsive map interactions. Available datasets include raster outputs from FORWARDS research and field inventories from CSF supersites across Europe. Fully open source, the Observatory embodies transparency, reusability, and collaboration. The workshop will therefore serve both as a technical exploration and a participatory design exercise—gathering insights from researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to ensure the Observatory becomes a central, community-shaped tool for tracking and enhancing forest resilience in Europe.

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Speakers and Presentation Titles

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Organiser