Grünecho
Every forest administration collects the same kind of data: crown condition, soil condition, forest inventory, game damage and long-term measurements on permanent monitoring plots. And nearly every one of them digitises it from scratch – its own tender, its own budget, its own risk.
Does this sound familiar?
- table_view Decades of measurements live in grown spreadsheet chains that exactly one person in the house understands.
- edit_note The survey season runs on paper, or in an application that stops working in the stand without a network.
- lock The results are scientifically valuable but only available internally – the public and research cannot reach them.
- assignment_late Reporting obligations at national, EU and international level cost the same manual work every year.
- currency_exchange Tendering your own build for an application that already exists elsewhere is hard to justify.
What the platform covers
The field app for Android, Windows and Web: offline-capable, map with pre-cached tiles, external GNSS receivers over Bluetooth, azimuth and distance measurement, plausibility checks right on the plot.
Survey forms are generated from JSON schemas. When the survey key changes, the schema changes – no new release, no new work order.
A data model along established survey standards, plus a documented REST interface for analysis, specialist procedures and research – with access control you hold yourself.
Integration of the sensors on permanent monitoring plots and automated processing, instead of recurring manual work before every report.
Long-term analyses, climate and drought-stress evaluations in a public platform – the proof that your surveys arrive where they belong.
Self-hosting in your own data centre is documented. Where that is not desired, operations can be supported or taken over.
Why reuse instead of rebuild
The source code was produced with public funds and is published on openCode. Reuse is exactly what it is there for.
Data model, offline synchronisation, field-readiness and analysis logic are the effort that blows up a project like this. Your share is the adaptation, not the invention.
You take on the code, not a licence. If you end the collaboration, you keep a running, documented application.
The more organisations share the same base, the cheaper every further adaptation becomes – and the more comparable the results are across borders.
How an adoption works
A comparison of your survey keys, data holdings and IT constraints with what exists in Brandenburg. The result is an honest statement of how large the gap is.
Deliverable: A written assessment with an effort frame and a recommendation – also available as a standalone engagement.
Data model and survey schemas tailored to your surveys, roles and responsibilities mapped, legacy data migrated.
Deliverable: A running instance on a test system, filled with your historical data.
One survey season in real use with part of the field crews – in parallel with the existing procedure, so nothing is lost.
Deliverable: A proven procedure, trained field teams, documented follow-up work.
Full rollout, publication of the analyses, handover to your own staff or your service provider – with documentation, not with dependency.
Deliverable: An operational platform, public analysis, documented operations.
The time and cost frame comes out of phase 1 – any number before that would be a guess.
References
From 2024 to 2026 Grünecho e.U. supports Forest Environmental Monitoring Brandenburg – from sensor data capture on the plot to the public platform. The application is in use, the analyses are public, the source code is published.
Visit the platformopen_in_new Source code on openCodeopen_in_new Project description
From 2024 to 2027 Gerrit Balindt supports the development of the Terrestrial Forest Monitor (TFM) – the database for the field data of the German National Forest Inventory, with its interface and the field app for Windows and Android. The app's source code is published.
View the documentationopen_in_new App source code on GitHubopen_in_new
What the data says
This time series is loaded straight from the open interface of a running instance when you open this page — one request, aggregated server-side. That is what an open interface means here: not a report as a PDF, but a value any application can retrieve.
In percent, 0 = fully foliated. One value per survey year.
Loading the time series …
Values as a table
| Year | Mean defoliation | Trees assessed |
|---|
Data source: Forest Environmental Monitoring Brandenburg, retrieved through the platform's public interface.
Would this fit your organisation?
A 30-minute call is enough to establish how far your surveys are from the ones in Brandenburg – and whether reuse is the right route for you at all.