Timberline Forest Inventory Consultants, based in Edmonton Alberta, maps forests and vegetation using imagery captured by airborne and satellite platforms.

Almost all of the imagery they use is in stereo - that is, there is a left and right image pair, taken some distance apart, providing a three dimensional and measurable view of what's on the ground. Tree heights, areas of ground covered by the tree crowns, and other spatial parameters can be measured directly using photogrammetric software. Timberline's photo interpreters use their expert knowledge to determine tree and other vegetation species, classify wetlands according to visible indicators of soil moisture and richness, and in general to classify the overall vegetation structure.

Nueva Consulting has worked with Timberline since 2012 to maintain and enhance their vegetative attribute data collection programs in Alberta, BC and the Yukon. These programs are built in Java, distributed on the interpreters' workstations and use a common company-wide PostgreSQL relational database to store the interpreted and measured information. One client's project contains the attributes of over half a million vegetation "polygons" (areas of homogeneous vegetative structure). Each program implements a compact, keyboard-only display screen and a set of checking rules that correspond to the standards applicable to the province in which the mapping is carried out. A common data management framework Java SwingSet, underpins the set of programs and eliminates the need to create a new data management protocol for each new jurisdiction.