Goals and objectives
The first objective of the project is to bring a novel insight into the dynamics of riparian forests in Serbia by evaluating the growth and physiological response of main riparian tree species to environmental conditions at different spatial (tree- to regional-level) and temporal (intra- and inter-annual) scales. The second objective is to establish a reliable and robust monitoring of riparian forest vitality in the near real-time and enable riparian forest-related practice to benefit from it.
To address these two main objectives, the SmartTogether project focuses on the following research goals:
- to analyze the past and present spatial distribution of riparian forests in Serbia, determine the permanent monitoring pilot plots and describe the ecological conditions occurring across the selected sites,
- to examine the inter-annual climate-growth relationships of the main riparian tree species in Serbia, as well as the potential influence of past drought events on the species decline,
- to describe seasonal and diurnal courses of stem radius increment, and assess its relationship with environmental conditions and past forest management practices deployed, including drought related response to water deficit,
- to develop research and monitoring network, based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology, able to automatically generate data of trees growth and physiological status in a near real-time,
- to explore how the knowledge gained during the SmartTogether project can be shared and used with the riparian forest-related practice to increase decision security while managing and protecting riparian forests.
