Designing the Future Forest: HCI Challenges and Opportunities in Forest 4.0
TL;DR
Findings from a structured Future Workshop involving 29 participants distributed across four thematic streams indicate that HCI challenges are not confined to interface design but pervade all six themes, and argue that forestry represents a rich and underexplored application domain for human-centered computing research.
Abstract
The digital transformation of forestry, often conceptualized as Forest 4.0, demands not only advances in artificial intelligence and data infrastructure, but also the design of usable, contextually appropriate, and human-centered systems for a diverse range of users, from field practitioners and policymakers to students and the general public. Yet despite growing recognition of its importance, the field lacks a consolidated empirical foundation that maps these interdependencies and positions human–computer interaction (HCI) as a cross-cutting priority within them. To address this gap, we present findings from a structured Future Workshop involving 29 participants distributed across four thematic streams: HCI in the forestry environment, AI applications in forestry settings, forest data-driven support, and forestry business model innovation. Through thematic analysis of digitized workshop outputs, we identified eleven subthemes and synthesized six overarching themes constituting a strategic research and innovation agenda for Forest 4.0. The findings indicate that HCI challenges are not confined to interface design but pervade all six themes, spanning data provenance transparency, explainable AI, decision support for non-expert users, workforce onboarding, public engagement, and participatory governance. We further discuss implications for HCI researchers, forestry practitioners, policymakers, and academic institutions, and argue that forestry represents a rich and underexplored application domain for human-centered computing research.
