Greenhouse gases emitted from vegetation feed back on the atmospheric chemistry and climate. We aim to simulate such vegetation produced greenhouse gases and to provide information on emissions from other sources.

Available languages: English

The purpose of the project DNL is to integrate existing national biotope inventories (bogs, flood plains, meadows, etc.) into a database and connect it to further datasources of the FOEN.

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Modelle der WSL zeigen, welche Landschaften in der Schweiz besonders artenreich sind und welche Einflussgrössen die Artenvielfalt unterschiedlicher Organismengruppen bestimmen. Die Arbeiten liefern Grundlagen für ein besseres Verständnis und den Schutz von Artenvielfalt auf Landschaftsebene.

Available languages: German

Über mehrere Jahre ist die Wirkung von Lawinen auf die Biodiversität untersucht worden. Die Zerstörungskraft der Lawinen weist für die Natur auch positive Aspekte auf. Sie schafft Standortbedingungen, die einer ganzen Reihe von Pflanzen überhaupt erst das Überleben ermöglichen.

Available languages: German

National digital surface models are often characterized by global and therefore coarse spatial accuracy and density estimates, which are insufficient for local analysis of nation-wide forest or landscape inventories. Local triangulation allows a robust estimate of spatial point distribution of national LiDAR datasets compared to simple local point density calculation.

Available languages: English

HELM initiates a move that will make European land monitoring more productive by increasing the alignment of national and sub-national land monitoring endeavours and by enabling their integration to a coherent European data system. HELM receives funding through the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission.

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First, this research focuses on the development of new methods for semi-automated extraction of forest parameters such as tree area and species based on airborne remote sensing data and logistic regression models. Second, new image-matching algorithms for the generation of high-resolution digital surface models for the extraction of forest parameters are tested: canopy height models, forest stand structure, degree of composition, forest border, timber volume estimation, tree growth, tree species etc. Third, new methods are developed to detect and simulate changes (forest growth, shrub encroachment) in forested mire vegetation using remotely sensed variables. The project reveals that is possible to estimate and quantify vegetation growth from the past to the future in mire environments.

Available languages: English

Since the mid 80-ies digital satellite images are uniformly mapped and interpreted within the European CORINE program (mapping landcover/landuse). Becoming a member of the European Environment Agency (EEA) this dataset is also done for Switzerland. The derivation of the CLC maps 2000 /2006 was supported and evaluated as well as preparing the new update map for 2012.

Available languages: German English

Tree cover is one of the important forest parameters for sustainable forest management. Therefore, automatic tree cover detection is of practical interest for the objective research of National Forest Inventory (NFI). Instead of manual interpretation which may be labor intensive, this project focuses on computer-based image processing methods designed to analyze high resolution remote sensing data. Developed methods must be applicable for all landscape types and recognize appropriate uncertainties reliably.

Available languages: English

This project funding is done by FOEN in order to observe actively the ongoing developments within GMES Land Services like GSE-Land, Geoland, Urban Atlas. This encompasses the collaboration in working groups like EAGLE, technical/scientific assistance in EIONET meetings or expertise in GMES validation teams. GMES, which stands for Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, is a joint initiative of the European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency (ESA) aiming to operationally provide sound, reliable and affordable geo-information products throughout Europe and over the globe.

Available languages: German English