Beyond the Trees – Virtual Insights into the Future of Forests: Interactively Experiencing Forest Management
Research set-up project
Michelle Weber, Alumna MA 24, Knowledge Visualization, Ecology & Sustainability Design
The research project "Beyond the Trees" focuses on the development of a VR tool for visualizing and teaching forest management practices to forestry students at ETH Zurich. Based on real forest and simulation data, it provides immersive insights into the impacts of various future scenarios and enhances awareness of sustainable forest management.
Within the scope of this research project, the VR prototype "Beyond the Trees" was further developed to be used as a teaching tool at ETH Zurich in the future. The main focus was on the optimization of the VR prototype as well as the preparation of a joint application with the cooperation partners of ETH Zurich.
The most important advances include a revised and more intuitive user interface, a more realistic representation of vegetation, and dynamic transitions between scenarios. In addition, forest science information on trees and scenarios has been added to help understand the consequences of different forest management practices.
These advances pave the way for a possible further development focusing more on didactic transfer to successfully use the tool in the classroom.
