me’eLocal Public Corporation for Agricultural Education and Vocational Training (EPLEFPA) from Besançon Silva Numerica, a digital tool for monitoring, interacting with, and changing the forest plot over time. explanations.
This tool is intended to be usable in middle school and high school in general training and in forestry training up to BTSA forestry management.
Resulted from a multi-partner project, started in 2016 as part of the government project “e-Fran, School Districts for Digital Innovation”, the project’s genesis is based on the idea of Facilitating the understanding of ecosystems as well as the management of forests and forest sites, while making the timber sector more attractive, Explained by EPLEFPA in a press release dated March 9, 2022.
Jungle in virtual reality
Today, Silva Numerica It is a digital platform that simulates the environment of the forest in virtual reality. Within this environment, the forest areas presented in the form of dynamic systems make it possible to measure the impact of human intervention on living and complex ecosystems.
© Silva Numerica / EPLEFPA
“Thanks to the early function and the modeling of plant growth according to environmental parameters, it is possible to predict the consequences of our actions “, confirms EPLEFPA. “This digital platform makes it possible to age the forest, and possibly go back in time to try other options, to check the consistency of the decisions made, but also to perceive the less obvious consequences, both chemical and biological, and thus measure the effects on soil, flora, fauna and forest quality.”
training tool
The goal of the project is to provide a platform that can be used in middle school to discover the forest and how it works, but also in high school in Technology Training (STAV) or general training, to deal with environmental concepts such as plant competition for light or ecological succession.
This alternative digital medium can also be used in forestry training to discuss the management of forest plots: the choice of trees in the future, the choice of trees to be felled, with the possibility of changing this plot over time and observing the consequences. It integrates biodiversity issues of forest ecosystems.
EPLEFPA specifies that this The project has been evaluated “Very positive in November 2021 by the Supreme Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education, during a presentation in front of the Ministry of National Education in the presence of Jean-Michel Blanquer”.
