CSM x Forest Research · 2025
Decision Support
Hybrid Intelligence
Data Visualization
The prototype received positive feedback from research stakeholders, who highlighted its potential for real-world deployment and long-term forest monitoring.
Team & My Role
A four-person interdisciplinary team spanning UX, visual communication, art direction, and installation design.
I designed the platform’s information architecture, interfaces, and trap-data visualisation, collaborating closely with Forest Research experts throughout.
Research
We spent time with Forest Research experts: interviews, field visits to monitoring plots, a look at the beetle specimen collection, and working sessions to test early ideas. We also reviewed the tools they use today.
Key findings
The challenge was not whether data existed, but how to turn it into clear action under pressure.
1. Fragmented signals: windthrow models, temperature data, pest phenology models, patrol records and trap maintenance information lived in different places, and experts combined them by hand.
2. Manual, offline traps: traps were not connected, so staff visited them on a schedule and collected catches by hand. Data arrived late, with no live view of what was happening.
3. No shared platform: researchers, field teams and forest managers each kept their own records, with no single place to see and manage the data.
System overview
The predictive platform combines ForestGALES windthrow outputs, degree-day models, local weather and the storm footprint to show high-risk windthrow zones, expected emergence windows and the best places for traps. The PHTAX trap carries a pheromone lure and sensors, and sends its data back into the platform. A public interface teaches beetle phenology visually and guides approved volunteers to safe monitoring sites, turning trap maintenance into small citizen-science missions. Expert judgement stays in the loop throughout.
Design decision 01
Spruce bark beetle development is driven by temperature, measured in degree-days (DD). Overwintered adults become active at around 70–90 DD, the first flight starts at 140–160 DD, and warm summers above 700 DD allow a second generation. I turned temperature data into a degree-day timeline, so experts can see when flight will peak and place traps before it does. This timing matters: properly timed pheromone traps can reduce beetle population growth by up to 40% (Wermelinger & Seifert, 1998).
Final Experience
The final prototype brings the outbreak map, wind and beetle flow, and ranked trap recommendations into one view. A forest manager can see where risk is rising, why, and where to act first. During a field visit, we walked six Forest Research scientists through the prototype. They found the degree-day timeline useful for planning trap placement, described the product as approachable and practical, and said they would like to see it deployed.
Field coordination
The timeline was designed to support field coordination, not just explain risk. By highlighting likely beetle flight periods, it provided a shared reference for scientists to plan trap inspections, coordinate field visits, and prioritise monitoring activities.
Physical prototype
Today, traps are offline and checked by hand on a schedule. The PHTAX trap (45 × 36 cm) carries a pheromone lure with a micro-heating element, an infrared sensor that detects beetles as they enter, and temperature and humidity sensors. Powered by a solar panel, it sends catches and microclimate data back into the platform, so forecasts and the ranked action list reflect what is happening in the forest now.
Anatomy of the PHTAX trap
five parts outside, four inside the chamber.
