Smart Forestry Mapping Initiative

A large-scale forestry digitisation and GIS inventory initiative supporting sustainable timber management and ecosystem planning across Newfoundland and Labrador. SBL transformed thousands of analogue forestry maps into a structured ESRI-compatible spatial database — enabling faster resource planning, accurate forest analysis and scalable environmental management across more than 200,000 hectares. Over 200,000 hectares digitally mapped and attributed. 2,000+ forestry map sheets converted into ESRI GIS datasets. High-precision forest inventory data enabled for sustainable harvest and conservation planning.

"Large-scale forest inventory digitisation improved sustainable resource planning, enabled accurate environmental analysis and created a scalable GIS forestry intelligence platform. "

Industry: Energy & Utilities
Service: Generative AI, Intelligent Document Processing, Product Engineering

200,000+ hectares: Forest inventory digitised
2,000+: Map sheets converted
ESRI-ready: Spatial forestry database

Challenge

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador relied on fragmented paper-based forestry maps that limited large-scale resource planning, biodiversity monitoring and timber supply management. Forest inventory records required detailed attribution for species, age, density and site classification, while maintaining strict topological consistency across thousands of map sheets. The scale and complexity of aerial photo interpretation made manual processing slow, resource-intensive and difficult to standardise.

Approach

SBL deployed a specialist GIS and forestry interpretation team to digitise and enrich large volumes of aerial forestry maps into structured ESRI ArcInfo datasets. Using advanced photo-interpretation workflows, the team captured detailed forest attributes including species composition, stand age, canopy height and density classifications. Rigorous topological checks ensured seamless forest boundary continuity and high spatial accuracy across the entire provincial dataset. The final system delivered a query-ready forestry intelligence platform designed for long-term environmental and commercial use.

Outcome

The project transformed static forest inventories into an active digital management platform supporting sustainable harvesting, biodiversity conservation and provincial planning. Forestry teams gained faster access to accurate, site-level resource intelligence, enabling more efficient wood-supply forecasting and environmental monitoring. What was once a fragmented paper archive became a scalable geospatial ecosystem capable of supporting long-term forest management across one of Canada’s largest natural resource regions.

IX Case studies

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