Toshiaki OWARI, Associate Professor
・Cross-Appointed Faculty, International Program in Agricultural Development Studies (IPADS)
The University of Tokyo Hokkaido Forest, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Contact information:
Phone +81 167-422111
>>EMAIL owari[at]g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Professional Experience & Education
| 2021: | Associate Professor (cross-appointed), Digital Spatial Society, The University of Tokyo, Japan Adjunct Research Fellow, Experimental Forest, College of Bioresources and Agriculture National Taiwan University, Taiwan |
|---|---|
| 2018: | Visiting Associate Professor, Department of Development and Sustainability, School of Environment, Resources & Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand (~2018) |
| 2012: | Associate Professor, The University of Tokyo Forests, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan Visiting Associate Professor, Risk Analysis Research Center, The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Research Organization of Information and Systems, Japan (~2013) |
| 2007: | M.S., Department of Forest Economics, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry, University of Helsinki, Finland |
| 2006: | Instructor, Division of Environmental Resources, Research Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Japan; Lecturer, University Forests, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan |
| 2000: | Ph.D., Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan |
| 1999: | Instructor, Division of Environmental Resources, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Japan |
| 1997: | Instructor, Department of Forest Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Japan |
| 1995: | M.S., Department of Forestry, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Japan |
| 1993: | B.S., Department of Forestry, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Japan |
Discipline
Forest Science
Research themes
- Close-to-nature silviculture
- Data-driven forest management using digital technologies
- Growth and management of old Cryptomeria japonica plantation
Study example
- Climate change can have a significant impact on forests by altering disturbance regimes such as insect outbreaks and windstorms. As an effective method for climate change adaptation and mitigation, close-to-nature silviculture is increasingly gaining attention worldwide. It is a type of management approach, in which the intrinsic processes of forest ecosystems are considered as highly important. Partial cutting with natural regeneration is typically used for maintaining multi-aged mixed forests with structural and spatial heterogeneity, which are assumed to be more resilient against ecological disturbances than even-aged mono-specific forests. As a unique application of close-to-nature silviculture in northern Japan, the stand-based silvicultural management system has been used since 1958 at the University of Tokyo Hokkaido Forest. We explore the applicability of innovative geospatial technologies such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry for silvicultural management planning.
- UAVs and digital photogrammetric techniques are two recent advances in remote sensing technology that are emerging as alternatives to high-cost airborne laser scanning (ALS) data sources. We demonstrated that fixed-wing UAVs are capable of efficiently collecting image data at local scales and that UAV imagery can be effectively utilized with digital photogrammetric techniques to provide detailed automated reconstruction of the three-dimensional canopy surface of mixed conifer–broadleaf forests. We confirmed the potential of UAV imagery when combined with ALS digital terrain model to capture the fine scale spatial variation of merchantable volume and carbon stock in living biomass in uneven–aged forests subjected to silvicultural practices and natural disturbances over time.
- High-value timber species play a significant economic role in forest management. In uneven-aged mixed conifer-broadleaf forests in northern Japan, monarch birch (Betula maximowicziana), castor aralia (Kalopanax septemlobus), and Japanese oak (Quercus crispula) are important producers of high commercial value timber. We examined the potential use of unmanned aerial vehicle digital aerial photogrammetry (UAV-DAP) in combination with long-term forest measurement dataset for single-tree management of high-value timber species. Our results indicated that the use of remote sensing data and resource assessment techniques could facilitate the retrieval of individual tree information of high-value timber species and could support single-tree management systems. Further, our results confirmed the applicability of UAV-DAP data in practical forest measurement of high-value timber species.
Primary papers
Pei, H., Owari, T., Tsuyuki, S., Hiroshima, T. (2023) Identifying spatial variation of carbon stock in a warm temperate forest in central Japan using Sentinel-2 and digital elevation model data. Remote Sensing, 15(8): 1997 (doi: 10.3390/rs15041001)
Pei, H., Owari, T., Tsuyuki, S., Zhong, Y. (2023) Application of a novel multiscale global graph convolutional neural network to improve the accuracy of forest type classification using aerial photographs. Remote Sensing, 15(4): 1001 (doi: 10.3390/rs150081997)
Owari, T., Im, S., Guan, B.T. (eds.) (2022) Long-term Monitoring and Research in Asian University Forests: Understanding Environmental Changes and Ecosystem Responses. 130pp, CRC Press, Oxon, United Kingdom (ISBN: 9781032172354)
Moe, K.T., Owari, T., Furuya, N., Hiroshima, T., Morimoto, J. (2020) Application of UAV photogrammetry with LiDAR data to facilitate the estimation of tree locations and DBH values for high-value timber species in northern Japanese mixed-wood forests. Remote Sensing, 12(17):2865 (doi: 10.3390/rs12172865)
Moe, K.T., Owari, T. (2020) Predicting individual tree growth of high-value timber species in mixed conifer-broadleaf forests in northern Japan using long-term forest measurement data. Journal of Forest Research, 25(4): 242-249 (doi: 10.1080/13416979.2020.1790095)
Moe, K.T., Owari, T. (2020) Sustainability of high-value timber species in mixed conifer-broadleaf forest managed under selection system in northern Japan. Forests, 11(5):484 (doi: 10.3390/f11050484)
Moe, K.T., Owari, T., Furuya, N., Hiroshima, T. (2020) Comparing individual tree height information derived from field surveys, LiDAR and UAV-DAP for high-value timber species in northern Japan. Forests, 11(2):223 (doi: 10.3390/f11020223)
Owari, T., Toyama, K., Suzuki, S.N., Hiroshima, T., Ishibashi, S. (2019) Long-term growth records of Cryptomeria japonica plantations at the University of Tokyo Forests, Japan, In: Kamata, N., Kuraji, K., Owari, T., Guan, B.T. (eds.), Developing a Network of Long-term Research Field Stations to Monitor Environmental Changes and Ecosystem Responses in Asian Forests, 219-231, The University of Tokyo Forests Press, Tokyo (ISBN: 9784903321288)
Jayathunga, S., Owari, T., Tsuyuki, S., Hirata, Y. (2019) Potential of UAV photogrammetry for characterization of forest canopy structure in uneven-aged mixed conifer–broadleaf forests. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 41(1):53-73 (doi: 10.1080/01431161.2019.1648900)
Jayathunga, S., Owari, T., Tsuyuki, S. (2019) Digital aerial photogrammetry for uneven–aged forest management: Assessing the potential to reconstruct canopy structure and estimate living biomass. Remote Sensing, 11(3): 338 (doi: 10.3390/rs11030338)
Jayathunga, S., Owari, T., Tsuyuki, S. (2018) The use of fixed-wing UAV photogrammetry with LiDAR DTM to estimate merchantable volume and carbon stock in living biomass over a mixed conifer-broadleaf forest. International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation, 73: 767-777 (doi: 10.1016/j.jag.2018.08.017)
Jayathunga, S., Owari, T., Tsuyuki, S. (2018) Evaluating the performance of photogrammetric products using fixed-wing UAV imagery over a mixed conifer-broadleaf forest: Comparison with airborne laser scanning. Remote Sensing, 10(2): 187 (doi: 10.3390/rs10020187)
Owari, T., Okamura, K., Fukushi, K., Kasahara, H., Tatsumi, S. (2016) Single-tree management for high-value timber species in a cool-temperate mixed forest in northern Japan. International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, 12(1-2): 74-82 (doi: 10.1080/21513732.2016.1163734)