Remote sensing is measuring the land from a distance, by satellite, aircraft or drone, instead of on the ground. Wikipedia defines it as "the acquisition of information about an object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object". The sensors vary: optical cameras that see colour and infrared, radar that sees through cloud, and LiDAR that measures height and structure.
In forestry
Remote sensing maps forest cover, detects harvests and disturbance, estimates height and volume, and tracks change over time. Satellites revisit often and cover large areas. Aircraft and drones carry sharper sensors over smaller ones.
Two kinds of use
Some uses are mapping: is there a new clearing, where is the harvest boundary? Those are checked by eye or against records, and don't depend on field plots.
Estimates of volume or biomass are different. They are modelled: a relationship is learned between what the sensor sees and what field crews measured on sample plots, then applied everywhere. An FAO forest monitoring post from February 2026 says such outputs "need systematic calibration and independent validation" wherever credibility matters.
How the plots are measured matters. A 2025 study in Silva Fennica used 12,420 plots from one national inventory and 45 local inventories. It tested how many sample trees were measured and how plot values were calculated. Root mean square errors "ranged from 5% to 16% relative to the mean observed values, across the factors studied". The best results came from choosing sample trees in proportion to basal area.
What it isn't
Remote sensing isn't an inventory by itself, and it doesn't replace field work for volume. It spreads a limited number of field measurements across a whole ownership.
What to check
For a volume or biomass product, ask how it was calibrated, on how many plots and how they were measured. Ask for accuracy against independent data, not the plots used to build the model. Where you hold harvest records, check the estimates against them.
Quarri for forest management is built around how a forest operation runs, from the cruise to the settled account.
Sources
- Wikipedia, "Remote sensing": en.wikipedia.org
- FAO forest monitoring blog, "Artificial intelligence in forest monitoring: uses, applications, adoption and precautions", 6 February 2026: fao.org
- Noordermeer, Gobakken and others, "Effects of sample tree selection and calculation methods on the accuracy of field plot values in area-based forest inventories", Silva Fennica, 2 June 2025: silvafennica.fi
Quarri is an AI-native data platform for the timber supply chain. It connects buying, production, sales and inventory for forest management, sawmill, wood products and pulp, paper and packaging operators.