About MOTI

 

What is MOTI?

MOTI takes advantage of Smartphone technology for the simple and convenient capturing of key variables concerning the condition of forests. The Android application is specifically designed for forestry professionals to capture in an easy, cost effective and reliable manner the key dendrometric variables such as basal area, number of trees per ha, tree height and stock, as a single measurement combined in a sample plot, or at the level of a stand inventory with automatic calculation of the error range of the estimations.

Although some principles used in MOTI have long been known, see for example the article from Noël Decourt on the use of photography to measure basal areas published in 1956 (in French), their integration within a smartphone application such as MOTI enables to generalize their use by forest practitioners.

MOTI thus provides the solid basis for decision making directly in the forest. For example, this information can be used for tree marking or for planning measures in the context of developing a forest management plan.

The use of MOTI is not only limited to the stand level. Thanks to the possibility of capturing samples, the Smartphone application can also be used in the context of making simple inventories for a forest management unit.

An Internet connection is not required (except for accessing the Help page).

The user interface is available in German, French, Italian and English.

Funding

MOTI was financed by the Swiss Forest and Wood Research Fund, the Cantons of Fribourg, Grisons, Lucerne, Ticino, Vaud, Valais and Zurich, and the School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences HAFL.

Project Organization

  • Project Manager: Prof. Dr. Christian Rosset (HAFL)
  • Staff: Roland Brand, Dominique Weber, Clotilde Gollut, Eric Wuillemin, Aaron Schmocker, Iris Caillard (HAFL)
  • Experts: Prof. Dr. Ulrich Fiedler (Mobile computing, BFH-TI), Prof. Dr. Jean-Philippe Schütz (Forest growth), Dr. Adrian Lanz (Forest inventory, WSL)
  • Translation: Roland Brand (DE), Clotilde Gollut (FR), Mark Günter (EN), Viola Sala (IT)