In 2015, Ryan attended a workshop in Chiang Mai, Thailand on automated forest restoration. The proceeds of that workshop have now finally been published in the online volume “Automated Forest Restoration: Could Robots Revive Rain Forests?” by FORRU (the Forest Restoration Unit at Chiang Mai University), edited by Steve Elliott, George Gale and Mark Robertson. The volume is intended as a resource for field practitioners setting up restoration projects and as a manifesto for guiding future research priorities.

Ryan coauthored chapter 12 of the volume with Tom Swinfield, on the topic of current and future techniques for monitoring forest restoration autonomously using drones, LiDAR and other technologies.

Chisholm, R. A., and T. Swinfield. 2020. Automated Vegetation Monitoring for Forest Restoration. In S. Elliott, G. Gale, and M. Robertson (editors), Automated Forest Restoration: Could Robots Revive Rain Forests? FORRU-CMU

UPDATE December 2021: The book is now available in printed form.