Wireless Dendrometer and Environmental Sensing System for Tree Growth Monitoring
- This research introduces a low-cost, wireless dendrometer system that enables large-scale tree growth monitoring without the high cost of traditional equipment. By combining modular sensors, solar power, and long-range LoRaWAN communication, the system allows continuous, remote data collection across vast plantations.
- A key innovation is the use of a digital twin, which corrects temperature-related measurement errors through modelling rather than expensive hardware. Field and lab tests show that the system achieves high accuracy and reliability, comparable to commercial solutions costing significantly more.
- The result is a scalable, open-source platform that makes precision forestry more accessible, allowing researchers to monitor many more trees, improve experimental design, and gain deeper insights into environmental and biological processes.
Here's what keeps forestry researchers up at night: How do you monitor thousands of trees across vast plantations when a single commercial dendrometer costs several thousand dollars? You don't. At least, you couldn't—until now.
Christopher Erasmus, under supervision of Professors Thinus Booysen and Dave Drew, developed a new wireless dendrometer system that changes everything. With his system, researchers can deploy accurate, solar-powered monitoring stations that match the performance of equipment costing 10 times more.
Cost aside, it will also help democratise access to precision forestry tools, particularly in regions where research budgets can't stretch to cover proprietary systems. And the timing matters. Eucalyptus plantations now cover nearly 20 million hectares globally, supplying raw materials for renewable energy, pulp production, and eco-friendly wood products that cannot be managed blind.
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