Understanding Europe’s changing forests through Earth observation
Date:
Lieu:
WSL Birmensdorf, Hörsaal, and Zoom-Webinar
Organisé par:
WSL
Interventant/intervenante:
Prof. Dr. Cornelius Senf, University of Munich
Modérateur/modératrice:
Lars Waser
Langue(s):
English
Type de manifestation:
Distinguished Lectures
Public cible:
everbody interested in this topic
Zoom-Link
Europe’s forests are under increasing pressure from climate extremes, requiring better monitoring of changing forest dynamics. In my talk I will summarize recent developments in Earth observation based forest monitoring, with a particular focus on characterizing forest disturbances and recovery from landscape to continental scales. In particulary, I will show how long-term satellite archives have enabled a seamless monitoring of tree cover and biomass change caused by drought, bark beetles, wind and fire but also human management; and how active sensor systems such as LiDAR have helped us to better understand the spatial dimension of disturbance and recovery. Finally, I will embed recent changes in forest disturbance and recovery into past variability and discuss whether the recent episode of extended disturbances in Central Europe was unprecedented.