The consortium

 

U-TURN is ran by a consortium of experts in remote sensing of terrestrial ecosystems (KUL, VITO, KU, WU), in vegetation dynamics (WU, UGent, KUL, KU), land cover classification and processing of dense stack of high resolution satellite images (VITO, WU), and process-based vegetation modelling (UGent, KUL), in-situ measurement in dryland and extensive field knowledge in the Sahel (KU).

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The Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape of the KU Leuven (KUL) focuses on the sustainable management of terrestrial ecosystems and has an active research focus on quantitative modeling of ecosystem stability. PI Somers has a background in remote sensing of vegetative systems with a specific focus on the development of spectral image and signal analysis techniques for environmental monitoring (including ecosystem stability analysis). PI Lhermitte’s research focuses on spatio-temporal analysis of satellite time series data and the integration of remote sensing imagery with atmospheric and land surface model data.

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The UGent partner (CAVElab) has a strong experience in vegetation modeling with different types of models in different types of ecosystems worldwide. The experience with data assimilation and model-data fusion is particularly and important expertise for this project. The team will also contribute with field-based ecological knowledge on vegetation dynamics, including drought responses. This project is an opportunity for the team to develop and strengthen its expertise in the assimilation of remote sensing data.

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VITO has long term experience with data archiving, pre-processing and image classification on local and global scale. VITO is currently PI for the construction of a global dynamic land cover map within Copernicus global land.

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The University of Copenhagen (KU, E&S research group) has a long history of publications and fieldwork in dryland and more specifically in the Sahel in relation to climate change, land degradation and food security issues. Interdisciplinary approaches are strongly emphasized with a focus on earth observation, the complexity of land use / cover change, and societal processes. Rasmus Fensholt is currently PI and Stephanie Horion postdoc on a project investigating trends in Earth Observation based vegetation productivity and land degradation in global drylands.

The Wageningen University (WU, remote sensing group) partner’s primary expertise lies in space-time analysis of global land cover dynamics. Jan Verbesselt is an expert in the detecting, monitoring, and characterizing land cover change processes. He is an author of an open-source toolkit, BFAST, that provides functionality to detect, monitor and characterize change within time series (http://bfast.r-forge.r-project.org/ ).