Development of virtual forest visualization system

The basis of forestry activities is maintenance activities such as growth, density, lighting and thinning, and tree felling operations. These transactions are; it is done for the purposes of obtaining more products, increasing the efficiency in the forest, and increasing the areas covered by the forests. These activities need to be done with care, as they are costly and have the potential to harm forest workers, remaining forest or the extracted product. Therefore, more effective use of computer technologies in both planning and construction phases will undoubtedly contribute positively to these activities. Thanks to the increasing technological opportunities today, the most precise calculations are made through computers and education is effectively provided with 3D visual materials. For this reason, it is important to use 3D decision support systems that allow detailed calculations by using more than one parameter (diameter, height, age, distance, crown) in the education and application areas of forestry. In this thesis study; based on this need, 3D simulation software ("ForSim") was developed, which models the real land surface in a coordinated 3D environment and visualizes the forest structure on the terrain model according to the data collected by field surveys or remote sensing techniques. The software is produced using Python programming language and basic libraries such as numpy and pandas. "ForSim" can perform maintenance activities such as growth, density, lighting and thinning, and tree felling operations in 3D environment, presenting the results in shapes and animated form. At the same time, "ForSim" can determine the escape route of the personnel and dangerous areas according to the two tree height rule during the felling operations for personnel safety, and can help the personnel who will perform the felling operation to decide on the most appropriate felling direction.