## 2 Characteristics of the Sectors in Focus
### Smart Forestry  
Smart Forestry (SmF) is another specific aspect of the general concept of Industry 4.0, which takes advantage of widespread digital transformation and ICT to automate processes. Forestry has many similarities to agriculture, so SmF can be considered appropriately modified SmA [11]; however, in the case of forestry crops, the time from sowing to harvest is much longer. There are basic differences in the forms of agrotechnical treatments, although an essential element here is also to observe the condition of crops to detect infections or infestations, quickly prevent their spread, and combat them. Moreover, as forests are habitats for many animal species, proper forest management contributes to the conservation and development of biodiversity.  
A recently promoted approach is Climate-Smart Forestry, which is aimed at strategies for sustainable forest management in response to climate change. In this context, the additional role of forests is to provide a considerable contribution to global carbon dioxide sinks to meet the goals of international agreements on climate change mitigation. Thus, forest degradation on a global scale should be reduced, which prevents the further obtaining of arable lands at the same time. Although afforestation is considered a forefront response to climate change, acting in favour of carbon sequestration efforts, forest planting alone does not provide mitigation; careful forest planning, establishment, and then management are required [20].  
Economic activity in forestry is mainly focused on the production of timber and biomass and their delivery to different forest product manufacturing sectors. Due to the environmental dimensions of forests, this must be done in a sustainable manner, which imposes additional management challenges. Business activities in forestry can be described as follows [21]:  
* _Forest management_--forest inventory management of tree stands, silviculture, and plantations, as well as pest and disease control, fire monitoring, and strategic planning and policy making, to ensure sustainable forest management and tactical and operational planning of forest resource usage for harvesting;
* _Harvesting operations_--harvesting planning with environmental, social, and ecological considerations, as well as execution (tree felling, skidding, processing, and sorting) and land reclamation for reforestation;
* _Timber transportation_--road planning and construction, with the consideration of minimizing soil erosion and environmental disturbances; transportation planning; vehicle routing scheduling; loading/unloading; and transportation.  
Similar to SmA, SmF is based on ML/AI-driven RT SDSSs founded on GIS. The latter is supplied with land and tree stand mapping and geo-spatially tagged monitoring data.  
Finally, it is also necessary to mention the sensitivity of forestry to the previously described problem of the impact of the global crisis on the fuel market due to the high energy intensity of forestry activities and disruptions to the global supply chains of forest-based raw materials as a result of the war in Ukraine and sanctions against the aggressor (before the war, Russia was the fifth highest global exporter of wood with a 6% market share [22], whereas the annual wood export volumes of Belarus and Ukraine were 6.5\(\times\) smaller, i.e., these three countries contributed 8% of global wood exports [23]). Therefore, there is elevated pressure to increase the cost and production efficiencies of forestry while considering the ecological constraints, which is a serious driver of SmF implementation. Autonomous harvesting and transportation are considered long-term goals in the forestry industry.