Schaepman Morsdorf
Fakultäten » Mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät » Geographisches Institut » Fernerkundung/Remote Sensing Laboratories » Prof. Dr. Michael Schaepman » Schaepman Morsdorf
Completed research project
| Title / Titel | 3D Vegetation Laboratory | ||||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | Understanding the dynamics of the global carbon cycle is one of the most crucial scientific and societal problems of the 21st century. A key part of this understanding is being able to measure and monitor the magnitude of terrestrial carbon sinks, by mapping their horizontal and vertical structure, their rapid as well as long term changes as a result from natural and human-induced disturbances (e.g. deforestation, fire and desertification) and the subsequent recovery processes. Earth observation has always played an important role in assessing the spatial extent and the wealth of terrestrial ecosystems and optical sensors (such as the ones being operated by ESA) have been proved to provide a key source of data to derive global geo-information products on forest and vegetation dynamics. ESA has maintained exploitation activities such as GlobCarbon, which have demonstrated their capacity to deliver long-term consistent data sets at global scale to the scientific community. In addition, the GMES forest related activities have paved the way for an operational use of ESA data in forest mapping and monitoring applications. The coming generation of ESA Operational mission (the Sentinels) will enhance that capacity providing novel observations with unprecedented accuracy and resolutions. This enhanced capability will provide operational institutions and the scientific community with an excellent tool to enhance forest and vegetation monitoring and to improve our understanding of the carbon cycle and land processes. An important aspect of vegetation canopies is structure, which is relevant for e.g. ecosystem or habitat assessments and will impact as well remote sensing estimates of height, biomass, density, albedo. However, in passive optical remote sensing structure can as well have negative influence, effectively decoupling EO signal from radiometric properties of vegetation. Thus, the derivation of e.g. leaf biochemistry can severely impacted if the effect of vegetation structure is not known. These limitations can be overcome by understanding and exploiting the signal (e.g. by radiative transfer models), particularly in conjunction with multi-angular observations, and the incorporation of new methods and tools, especially with direct measurements of vegetation structure by such things as terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and airborne laser scanning (ALS). In this context, the 3D-VegetationLab aims at establishing a scientific support tool to answer some of the main open scientific questions and the research needs in the thematic area of vegetation processes and land dynamics. A preparatory workshop was held in Jülich, Germany in Summer 2009, where the scientific community was invited to present new technologies and methods and to identify challenges and gaps. This project is a respond to the ESA ITT ESRIN/AO/1-6529/10/I-NB call for establishing a 3D VegetationLab based on detailed description of vegetation sites (3DVegLab). The team is composed of a principal investigator (RSL, CH), four full partners (TU Wien, AUT, UCL, UK, CESBIO, F, Netcetera, CH), one observer (JRC, I) and an additional subcontractor (TU Dresden). RSL is responsible for the overall execution and implementation of the project. The team at RSL is composed of Prof. Dr. Michael Schaepman (head, RSL, overall responsibility), Dr. Felix Morsdorf (project responsible, laser remote sensing scientist) and Reik Leiterer (PhD student). The subcontractors will be responsible for providing data and access to the sites on which the 3DVegLab will be established. We selected two sites in the first phase of the project. Four specific work packages (WP) are proposed to address seven tasks (T) specified in the project proposal Statement of Work (SoW). WP1 will deal with the project management, including the meeting organisation and communication between project participants including ESA authorities, keep the deliverables on track and report the results. WP1 is additionally comprised of Task 7, which focuses on the dissemination of the project’s results through publications and conference/workshop participation and the scientific demonstration study (Task 6). WP2 (Toolbox design and implementation) will cover the project tasks 3 and 5. Within these tasks the design of toolbox will be carried out (T3, including the definition of capabilities and interfaces), while in Task 5 the toolbox will be implemented according to TS and DDF delivered by Task 3. In WP 3, the requirement baselines for the 3DVegLab are defined based on literature review and consulting within the consortium (T1). In addition, WP 3 comprises the definition of field protocols for data acquisition (T2) and the actual gathering of the data itself (T4). Weitere Informationen |
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| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | laser scanning, vegetation structure, radiative transfer, simulation, satellite imagery | ||||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
Others European Space Agency (ESA) |
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| In collaboration with / In Zusammenarbeit mit |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Mar 2011 to Dec 2012 |