FOREST·OP
DOC · 05 PIPELINE · SCIENCE · WORKFLOW
REV 2.4.1 OWNER FOP-SCI STATUS LIVE 38.0406°N · 84.5037°W

FROM PHOTON
TO PRESCRIPTION.

THE FORESTOP PIPELINE · 5 STAGES · 1 LOOP · MEASURED IN ACRES & SECONDS
SENSE → ACT LATENCY11.4 min
GROUND-TRUTH SAMPLES / WK1,840
MODELS IN PRODUCTION17
PIXEL → PLOT RESOLUTION0.3 m → 1/10 ac
STAND COVERAGE47 / 47 100%
01

THE PIPELINE

SENSE · GROUND-TRUTH · MODEL · DECIDE · ACT
STAGE 01 / 05
SENSE
CAPTURE PHOTONS & ECHOES
  • SAT MULTISPEC3 m / 5 d
  • UAV LIDAR5 cm / qtr
  • UAV RGB+NIR3 cm / mo
  • FIELD SENSORS6 / hr
  • ACOUSTIC AM24 / 7
  • OPS LOGSEVENT
CONTINUOUS
STAGE 02 / 05
GROUND
CALIBRATE WITH HUMANS
  • FIXED PLOTS1/10 ac
  • VARIABLE PLOTSBAF·10
  • BIOMASS CORE5 cm Ø
  • SOIL PROBE0–30 cm
  • SCAT TRANSECT200 m
  • CALL-BACK2× / wk
SEASONAL · WEEKLY
STAGE 03 / 05
MODEL
FUSE · INFER · PROJECT
  • ALLOMETRICJenkins '03
  • GROWTH (FVS)SE Variant
  • BIOMASS CNNU-Net 3.2
  • SPECIES SEGSAM-FOR
  • WILDLIFE BIOBirdNET-3
  • FIRE RISKNFDRS-G
NIGHTLY · ON DEMAND
STAGE 04 / 05
DECIDE
RANK · ROUTE · APPROVE
  • VRI ENGINEBrain L5
  • RX BUILDERAtlas L1
  • ALERT TRIAGEWatch L3
  • HUMAN GATEP1·P2
  • AUTO PASSP3·AUTO
  • LINEAGE LOGFULL
REAL-TIME
STAGE 05 / 05
ACT
CREW · CHAINSAW · TRUCK
  • WORK ORDERSFieldOps L4
  • RX PACKETSPDF + GIS
  • OFFLINE SYNCdelta-CRDT
  • CHAIN-OF-CUSTODYsigned
  • POST-OP CAPTUREUAV +24h
  • CLOSE-OUTauto
PER ASSIGNMENT
DATA INGESTED
2.4 TB
/ WEEK · COMPRESSED
SAT 38% · LIDAR 41% · UAV 14% · OTHER 7%
PROPOSALS GENERATED
312
/ WEEK
P1 · 18   P2 · 96   P3 · 198
HUMAN APPROVALS
114
/ WEEK · 36% OF GENERATED
MEDIAN TIME-TO-DECISION · 4.2 min
FIELD ACTIONS DISPATCHED
96
/ WEEK
CLOSED · 91   ROLLED · 4   ABORT · 1
02

SENSE · INPUTS

SIX MODALITIES · ONE COORDINATE FRAME
S-01
SATELLITE
PLANET · SENTINEL-2
3 m GSD · 8-band MS · 5-day revisit
NDVI · EVI · NBR · cloud-mask <15%
Σ 14 GB / wk per district
S-02 {/* lidar cone */}
UAV LIDAR
DJI M350 · ZENMUSE L2
240 pt/m² · 5-return · ±2 cm Z
120 ac/flight · 90 min endurance
CHM · DTM · DSM · stems · gaps
S-03
UAV MULTISPEC
MICASENSE RED-EDGE
3 cm GSD · 5-band + thermal
stress · canopy mortality · phenology
monthly · bracketed ±2 hr solar noon
S-04
FIELD STATION
DAVIS VANTAGE · CSI
T · RH · soil-moisture × 4 depth
PAR · wind · rain · 1-Wire bus
6 readings / hr · LoRa relay
S-05
ACOUSTIC AM
AUDIOMOTH · SWIFT
48 kHz · 24/7 · 3-min cycle
BirdNET-3 · bat ultrasonics
edge-trigger upload >90% conf
S-06
OPS LOGS
FIELDOPS · WORK ORDERS
chain-saw events · GPS breadcrumb
truck telemetry · fuel · safety check
event-driven · signed
03

GROUND TRUTH · PROTOCOLS

WHAT THE CREW DOES SO THE SATELLITE DOESN'T LIE
PROTO 01 / 06 CADENCE · QUARTERLY

FIXED-AREA INVENTORY PLOT

METHOD 1/10-acre circular plot · 37.2 ft radius · permanent rebar witness · DBH ≥ 5.0 in calipered N–S, height clinometer ±1 ft, species 4-letter NRCS code, vigor 1–5, crown class.
OUTPUTS BA/ac · TPA · QMD · species-mix histogram · per-tree growth delta vs. last visit · feeds CHIMS · ALLOMETRIC
{/* trees */} N PLOT-04-12
PROTO 02 / 06 CADENCE · ANNUAL

VARIABLE-RADIUS · BAF-10 PRISM SWEEP

METHOD 10-factor angle gauge · 360° rotation · count "in" trees · DBH on every borderline tree · used for rapid stand-level BA/ac across full coverage.
OUTPUTS stand BA/ac · stratification check vs. CHM-derived BA · low-cost validation grid for ATLAS raster products.
PROTO 03 / 06 CADENCE · ANNUAL · SUBSAMPLE

DESTRUCTIVE BIOMASS CORE

METHOD 5 cm Ø increment core at DBH · drying 60°C / 48 hr · ovendry mass · ring-count · stratified by species × DBH-class · ≤ 12 stems / district / year.
OUTPUTS local allometric coefficients · density adjustment vs. Jenkins '03 · feeds BIOMASS CNN as ground-anchor.
PITH CAMBIUM CORE-04-22-A · QUAL · 142 RINGS
PROTO 04 / 06 CADENCE · BI-ANNUAL

SOIL PROBE · 0–30 cm

METHOD slide-hammer probe · 3 depth bands · loss-on-ignition for OM · pH in CaCl₂ · texture by feel + lab subsample · co-located with fixed plot.
OUTPUTS site-index correction · regen-suitability layer · feeds ATLAS · SOILS + growth-model overrides.
A · 0–10 cm · OM 6.2% B · 10–20 cm · OM 2.1% C · 20–30 cm · OM 0.8%
PROTO 05 / 06 CADENCE · MONTHLY

WILDLIFE TRANSECT & SCAT

METHOD 200 m line transect · 10 m belt · sign / scat / track tally · mist-net subsample (passerine) · tree-cavity count · time-stamped voice memo.
OUTPUTS occupancy index by guild · validates BirdNET-3 acoustic IDs · feeds WILDLIFE habitat layer.
★ • △ ★ • TRANS-04-N · 0 → 200 m · STOPS @ 50 m
PROTO 06 / 06 CADENCE · 2× / WK

CALL-BACK · ACOUSTIC GROUND-TRUTH

METHOD playback survey at AudioMoth nodes · 5-min listen · human ID confirm of top-5 BirdNET hits · ambient noise log · seasonal target list.
OUTPUTS confusion matrix per species · classifier drift detection · auto-trigger retraining queue when F1 < 0.78 over 2 weeks.
0:00 5:00
04

MODELS · THE MATH

CITED · VALIDATED · VERSIONED
M-01 · BIOMASS
JENKINS GENERIC ALLOMETRIC
B = exp( β₀ + β₁ · ln(DBH) )
B aboveground oven-dry biomass (kg) · DBH in cm · β₀,β₁ species-group coefficients (Jenkins et al. 2003) · regional density correction from Proto-03.
R² 0.94 n = 2,840 v3.2.1
M-02 · GROWTH
FVS · SOUTHEAST VARIANT
ΔBAt = f(SI, BAL, CR, spp) · climate-mod
SI site index (base 50) · BAL basal area in larger trees · CR crown ratio · 5-yr cycles · climate moderator from FORE-CAST downscaling.
RMSE ±4.2 ft² 5-yr horizon v2.0
M-03 · BIOMASS · CNN
U-NET · CHM → BA/AC
B̂(x) = U-Net( CHM, NDVI, slope )
input: 256×256 px tiles @ 0.3 m · 4-channel · trained on 14k Proto-01 labels · per-pixel BA prediction · raster product for Atlas.
MAE 11.6 ft² F1 0.89 v3.2 / Q2
M-04 · SPECIES
SAM-FOR · CANOPY SEGMENTER
yspp = SAM(RGB+NIR, prompt = leaf_phenology)
fine-tune of Segment-Anything · 11 phenology bands per year · 23 hardwood + 6 softwood classes · validated against Proto-01 species code.
Top-1 0.81 Top-3 0.96 v1.4
M-05 · WILDLIFE
BIRDNET-3 · LOCAL FINE-TUNE
P(spp | x) = softmax( BirdNET( mel(x) ) )
3-sec windows · mel-spectrogram · KY/TN call list · re-weighted on 11k Proto-06 labels · drift watcher fires retrain when F1 < 0.78.
F1 0.84 185 spp v3.0.4
M-06 · DECISION
VRI · VALUE-RISK-IMPACT
VRI = wv·V − wr·R + wi·I
V economic + ecosystem value · R operational + ecological risk · I mission-impact (carbon, water, habitat) · weights per ownership class.
tunable policy-aware v2.4
05

DECISION MATRIX

WHO ROUTES · WHO APPROVES · WHEN MACHINE GOES ALONE
TRIGGER SOURCE MODEL ROUTE SLA PRIORITY
FIRE-RISK SPIKE SAT NBR · weather feed NFDRS-G + drought index → Watch L3 · paged dispatch 5 min P1 · HUMAN
ENCROACHMENT UAV CHM Δ > 8 m U-Net change-detect → Watch L3 · DM owner 15 min P1 · HUMAN
THIN PRESCRIPTION CHIMS · BA/ac > WHO FVS + VRI → Brain L5 · district forester 3 days P2 · HUMAN
REGEN OPENING Atlas · gap polygon VRI + soils → Brain L5 · queue 1 wk P2 · HUMAN
RX BURN UNIT REFRESH FieldOps · post-op imagery U-Net + crew log → FieldOps L4 · auto re-tile nightly P3 · ROUTINE
CHIMS TILE REFRESH cron · all sensors stack-fuse pipeline → data lake · indexed 02:00 UTC AUTO
SOIL-MOIST RECALIB field probe vs. SMAP linear bias correct → Atlas soils raster weekly AUTO
06

THE LOOP · A WEEK ON THE GROUND

HOW THE PIPELINE FEEDS ITSELF
DAY 0 DAY 1 DAY 2 DAY 3 DAY 4 DAY 5 DAY 6 DAY 7 DAY 0 · SENSE SAT REVISIT 02:14 UTC · auto-ingest DAY 1 · SENSE UAV LIDAR stand 04 · 120 ac DAY 2 · GROUND PLOT SWEEP 4 plots · 2 crews DAY 3 · MODEL FUSE · SCORE VRI · 312 candidates DAY 4 · DECIDE FORESTER GATE 96 approve · 18 hold DAY 5–6 · ACT CREW DISPATCH Rx packets · offline DAY 7 · POST-OP UAV +24h · CLOSE labels back to training FEEDBACK · LABELS · DRIFT-WATCH · RETRAIN
SENSEPhotons, echoes, telemetry. Always-on. Cheap.
GROUND-TRUTHBoots on the ground. Slow. Expensive. Honest.
MODEL · DECIDEFuse, score, route. Nightly + on-demand.
ACT · LOOPCrew acts, captures the result. The result becomes the next training label.
07

QA · DRIFT-WATCH

EVERY MODEL HAS A WATCHDOG · EVERY WATCHDOG HAS A HUMAN
U-NET · BIOMASS
F1 = 0.89
floor · 0.78last calib · 6 d
● PASS+0.02 vs. last week
BIRDNET-3 · LOCAL
F1 = 0.81
floor · 0.78last calib · 11 d
● WATCH−0.03 · approaching floor
FVS-SE · GROWTH
RMSE 4.2 ft²
ceiling · 6.5 ft²last calib · 90 d
● RECALIB DUEdrought adj. pending
08

CADENCE · CRON

THE CALENDAR THE STACK ACTUALLY RUNS ON 
# forestop-pipeline / cron.yaml · v2.4.1

continuous:
  field_station:     @10min     # T·RH·soil·PAR
  acoustic_am:       @event    # 3-min triggers

daily:
  02:00 UTC          stack_fuse_chims_tile
  03:30 UTC          vri_score_proposals
  06:00 local        crew_packet_sync

weekly:
  MON 04:00          drift_watch · all_models
  WED                 field_proto_06 · acoustic_callback
  FRI 09:00          district_briefing · auto-pdf

seasonal:
  Q · open           proto_01_inventory · 12 plots / district
  Q · open           uav_lidar · full coverage
  spring · fall       proto_04_soils · paired plots

on_demand:
  fire_risk_spike:   → watch_l3 · paged · 5 min SLA
  encroachment:      → owner_dm · 15 min SLA
  post_op_capture:   uav_rgb · +24h ± 4h
FORESTOP · PIPELINE / SCIENCE / WORKFLOW · REV 2.4.1 OWNER · FOP-SCI NEXT REVIEW · QTR-OPEN forest-op.land · ERLANGER, KY