Research Bert Gielen

Abstract

The European Green Deal relies on healthy forests to remove carbon (C) from the atmosphere, stabilize the water cycle and provide sufficient biomass for the future bioeconomy. The Flanders Forest Living lab realizes a specific breakthrough in the assessment of these crucial ecosystem functions, at spatial scales ranging from the individual tree to the entire forest. The Living Lab is situated in an ICOS flux-tower observatory, that currently already provides a permanent assessment of ecosystem scale CO2-fluxes, evapotranspiration and respiration. To date however, no technique is available to study the function of individual trees, at daily resolution, across a forest. achieving this is the groundbreaking objective of this new infrastructure. Its specific equipment allows for crucial realistic simulation of the water-, energy- and carbon fluxes by advanced vegetation models at spatial scales matching those of satellite imagery products, thereby creating new possibilities for applications such as automated precision forestry management, fire prevention and worldwide carbon budget quantifications. The new infrastructure involves an UAV and a set of linked validation sensors. Observations are steered by artificial intelligence, in order to be able to adapt the flight pattern to the fluctuating source area of the flux-tower, and in order to proactively adapt to specific weather patterns and potentially interesting ground-sensor observations.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Janssens Ivan
• Co-promoter: Campioli Matteo
• Co-promoter: Gielen Bert
• Co-promoter: Latré Steven
• Co-promoter: Nijs Ivan
• Co-promoter: Roland Marilyn
• Co-promoter: Scheunders Paul
• Co-promoter: Vicca Sara

Research team(s)

• Plant and Ecosystems (PLECO) - Ecology in a time of change

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The "Pilot Application in Urban Landscapes - Towards integrated city observatories for greenhouse gases" (PAUL) project supports the European Green Deal by creating capabilities to observe and verify greenhouse gas emissions from densely populated urban areas across Europe. Cities are recognized as important anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission hotspots and therefore play a significant role in any emission reduction efforts. The PAUL project aims to increase our understanding of specific needs of greenhouse gas emission assessment in urban environments; it compares available and novel observational approaches and implements an integrated concept for a city observatory, providing unique data sets that feed diverse modelling approaches, scientific studies and will be the base of services towards the city administrations. A specifically innovative approach is the co-design of services, models and observations between city administrators and scientists from multiple disciplines including social and governmental sciences.The PAUL co-design approach will explore the needs of the cities and combine these with the scientific outcomes. This allows to introduce smart services to the cities, supporting evidence-based decisions on climate action and strategic investments. Overarching goals of PAUL are to: 1) implement elements of a pilot city observatory in a large (Paris), a medium (Munich) and a small (Zurich) European city, 2) collaborate with city stakeholders and engage citizens in co-designing services that are required for GHG monitoring in order to validate the implementation of Paris Agreement, and 3) increase our understanding of specific needs of GHG assessment in urban environments and create a service portfolio for setting up an urban greenhouse gas observatory.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Gielen Bert
• Co-promoter: Janssens Ivan

Research team(s)

• Plant and Ecosystems (PLECO) - Ecology in a time of change

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The objective of the Copernicus Cal/Val Solution (CCVS) is to define a holistic solution for all Copernicus Sentinel missions (either operational or planned) to overcome current limitations of Calibration and Validation (Cal/Val) activities. Operational Cal/Val is required to ensure the quality of and build confidence in Copernicus data. However, these activities are currently limited by the following considerations: • The requirements and objectives need to be revisited to consider new usage of Copernicus products, inter-operability requirements, and to anticipate the needs of future Copernicus missions • Current Cal/Val activities are constrained by programmatic and budgetary requirements and do not necessarily follow scientific priorities • Cal/Val activities depend on the operational availability of high-quality Fiducial Reference Measurements (FRM) which are today mostly provided by external entities without strong commitment to the Copernicus program • Synergies within Copernicus and with other national and international programs are not systematically explored. To address these limitations CCVS will propose: • An updated specification of Cal/Val requirements for the Sentinel missions, taking into account inter-operability needs • An overview of existing Calibration and Validation sources and means • A gap analysis identifying missing elements and required developments in terms of technologies and instrumentation, Cal/Val methods, instrumented sites and dissemination service. • A comprehensive Copernicus Cal/Val Solution to organize the long-term provision of FRM for Sentinel missions • A roadmap documenting how the Cal/Val Solution can be implemented, highlighting responsibility, cost and schedule aspects. This plan will be elaborated in concertation with all stakeholders through four Working Groups gathering European Space Agencies, Copernicus Services, measurements and International partners.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Gielen Bert
• Co-promoter: Janssens Ivan

Research team(s)

• Plant and Ecosystems (PLECO) - Ecology in a time of change

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Readiness of ICOS for Necessities of integrated Global Observations (RINGO) is a H2020 EU project that serves to further developed and support the ICOS research infrastructure. Within this project the University of Antwerp has a task that aims to investigate the ability to apply terrestrial light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) measurements to estimate above ground biomass at forest ecosystems. Aboveground biomass is crucial component of the carbon balance of forest ecosystems however it is very difficult to accurately estimate. LiDAR is a new and promising technique that offers the possibility to obtain highly accurate estimates of tree volumes. Within this project we will select several test sites in Belgium with different tree species which will be scanned and at each site several trees will be destructively harvested to validate estimated volume. In a second stage several ICOS sites in Belgium and neighbouring countries will be visited to perform LiDAR scans in order to estimate Aboveground biomass accurately. The outcome of this project will be a protocol to perform LiDAR measurements at the ICOS ecosystem station.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Gielen Bert
• Co-promoter: Janssens Ivan

Research team(s)

• Plant and Ecosystems (PLECO) - Ecology in a time of change

Project website

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Janssens Ivan
• Fellow: Gielen Bert

Research team(s)

• Plant and Ecosystems (PLECO) - Ecology in a time of change

Project type(s)

• Research Project