Martelage.Sylvotheque.ch (MSC)
Mobile and web platform for training silvicultural tree marking — enabling forestry professionals and students to simulate tree selection on real and virtual forest plots. In active development and use at BFH since 2014.
Fiche signalétique
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Départements participants
Haute école des sciences agronomiques, forestières et alimentaires
Technique et informatique -
Institut(s)
Gestion multifonctionnelle des forêts
Institute for Cybersecurity & Engineering (ICE) -
Unité(s) de recherche
Écosystème forestier et gestion
ICE / Cyber Threat Intelligence - Organisation d'encouragement Autres
- Durée 01.10.2018 - 30.09.2020
- Direction du projet Prof. Dr. Christian Rosset
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Équipe du projet
Prof. Dr. Christian Rosset
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Fiedler - Partenaire Eidgenössische Forschungsanstalt WSL
- Mots-clés martelage, tree marking, silviculture, marteloscope, marteloscope library, forestry training, MSC Mobile app, mobile app, iOS, Android, offline app, digital learning, forest management, close-to-natur
Situation
Tree marking (martelage) — the process of selecting trees for harvesting — is a critical forestry skill requiring both theoretical knowledge and practical field experience. Training opportunities in real forest stands are costly, logistically complex, posing a particular challenge for cantonal forest services, forestry schools, and continuing education programs. Initiated by Prof. Christian Rosset (HAFL, BFH) and developed in long-term collaboration with Prof. Dr. Ulrich Fiedler and his Software Engineering and Development lab at BFH-TI since 2014, MSC has evolved through eight successive project phases (MSC1–MSC8) and remains active in 2026. What began as a focused platform development effort has grown into a sustained cross-institute partnership, with the web platform and MSC Mobile app continuously kept up to date through regular security patches, dependency updates, and stepwise feature extensions. The project sits within a broader BFH digital forestry portfolio that also includes the WIS.2 Cockpit — a Decision Support System (DSS) for adaptive, multi-purpose forest management planning. Where the WIS.2 Cockpit supports strategic and operational planning, MSC closes the training gap by giving practitioners hands-on experience in the core skill those plans depend on, accurate tree selection.
Approche
The MSC project followed an agile, Scrum-based development methodology, structured in successive phases (MSC1–MSC8) since 2014. Prof. Christian Rosset (HAFL) served as Product Owner, defining and prioritizing requirements from a silvicultural and pedagogical perspective; Prof. Dr. Ulrich Fiedler’s Software Engineering and Development lab at BFH-TI provided the development team. This cross-institute Scrum setup enabled close, iterative alignment between domain expertise and software engineering throughout the project’s twelve-year run. Each sprint cycle added new functionality, expanded the marteloscope library, and ensured the platform remained secure and technically current — including regular dependency updates and security patches. Requirements were formulated as user stories with acceptance criteria, refined in collaboration with forestry educators, field practitioners, and institutional partners. Comprehensive developer documentation was produced alongside each phase to ensure efficient onboarding of new team members and seamless continuity of development as the team evolved. Data collection for new marteloscopes follows standardized dendrometric protocols, ensuring consistent integration of forest plots from different regions and partners. The MSC Mobile app (iOS and Android) complements the web platform with offline field capability, providing real-time feedback on marking decisions without an Internet connection.
Résultat
The project delivered a two-component digital learning environment — a web platform and the MSC Mobile app — continuously extended across eight phases (MSC1–MSC8) since 2014 and still active in 2026. The web platform provides a growing library of over 250 marteloscopes with interactive cartography and simulation tools, allowing users to compare silvicultural visions, calculate stand growth, and analyze dendrometry data. The MSC Mobile app (iOS and Android) enables forestry professionals and students to conduct real marking exercises in the field without Internet connectivity, with immediate scoring and result visualization. Across the MSC1–MSC8 phases, the platform has been kept technically current through ongoing security patches and dependency updates, while new features and marteloscopes have been added step by step. It is used in multiple countries, including Switzerland, Germany, Ukraine, Slovenia, and several other European nations. The MSC platform complements BFH’s WIS.2 Cockpit: where the WIS.2 Cockpit guides operational management planning, MSC builds the tree marking competencies that those plans depend on.
Perspectives
With MSC8 currently active in 2026, the project is positioned as a long-term infrastructure for forestry education and applied research. Future phases will continue expanding the international marteloscope network and deepen integration with forestry curricula and continuing education programs across Europe. Planned near-term extensions include additional simulation scenarios and support for multi-user collaborative exercises. A strategic priority is deeper integration with the WIS.2 Cockpit, enabling a seamless workflow from stand-level marking practice in MSC to operational management planning in the DSS. The growing dataset of marking decisions — accumulated across thousands of field exercises on over 250 standardized marteloscopes — also offers a unique resource for research into silvicultural decision-making, human–AI collaboration in forest management, and the quantitative assessment of close-to-nature forestry practices under climate change.
