Visiting academics and students

Forestry, LiDAR, individual tree structure, quantitative structure models

Barbara D’hont is a visiting PhD student from Q-ForestLab at Ghent University, Belgium. Her research focuses on the structure of individual trees in a wide range of environments, from urban to tropical. She is currently working with different LiDAR platforms to assess the quality of ecosystem service quantification of urban trees using structural information derived from these platforms. She is also part of the Life On Trees research project, which aims to link individual tree structure of large, old, tropical trees with biodiversity and microclimate – for which she’s scanning inside the canopies of those trees.

Forestry, urban forestry, geospatial analysis, environmental engineering

I am currently a master’s student undertaking my final thesis in the Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis Lab Group at the School of Forestry, University of Canterbury. My research topic is "Optimizing Urban Canopy Cover Estimation in New Zealand Cities: A Strategic Exploration of Point Sampling Method for Enhanced Accuracy and Efficiency". I am visiting NZ from Europe where I am enrolled in the Mediterranean Forestry and Natural Resources Management Master’s program (MEDfOR), completing the first three semesters at the Universities of Lisbon, Portugal, and the University of Valladolid, Spain. I earned my Bachelor's degree in environmental engineering from the University of Patras in Greece.

Supervisory team: Justin Morgenroth, Rui Figueira (University of Lisbon) 

Time-series remote sensing, forest disturbance detection, carbon source/sink estimation, ecosystem model simulation

Dr. Dengqiu Li is a visiting scholar from the School of Geographical Sciences and the School of Carbon Neutrality Future Technology at Fujian Normal University. His research interests include the classification of forest types and the monitoring of disturbances using dense time-series satellite remote sensing data and UAV Lidar. He specializes in evaluating the impacts of forest management and disturbances on the carbon cycle through the use of process-based ecosystem models and remote sensing data. Dr. Li holds BSc and MSc degrees in Land Resources Management from Shandong Agriculture University, and a PhD in Geography from Nanjing University.

Research Profile 

Grassland degradation, aboveground biomass, LiDAR, UAV, Google Earth Engine

Ang Chen is a visiting PhD student from the School of Grassland Science at Beijing Forestry University, co-advised by Prof. Xiuchun Yang and Dr. Vega Xu. His master's research focused on monitoring the degradation of the fragile grassland ecosystems in northern China using the Google Earth Engine platform. Presently, his research is focused on integrating UAV LiDAR, UAV hyperspectral imagery, and Sentinel imagery to estimate grassland aboveground biomass. This research has the potential to accurately estimate aboveground biomass and shrub encroachment in temperate grasslands for better management of the ecosystem.

Supervisory team: Xiuchun Yang (Beijing Forestry University), Vega Xu

ResearchGate 

Genetic breeding, UAV, machine learning, forest tending, optical imagery

Jiaming Sun is a visiting M.D student from the Chinese Academy of Forestry, supervised by Dr.  Qifu Luan and Dr. Vega Xu. His research direction is the genetic breeding and improvement of slash pine and loblolly pine. At present, his research focuses on the UAV hyperspectral, laboratory hyperspectral and laboratory near-infrared spectral images combined with machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence on the growth management and seed identification of slash pine. This research is helpful to improve the efficiency of genetic selection and optimize the management and protection of germplasm resources.

Supervisory team: Qifu Luan (Chinese Academy of Forestry), Vega Xu

Remote sensing, forest monitoring and mapping, vegetation health, forest productivity

Dr. Nicholas Coops visited the RSGA between January-August 2023 as an Erskine Fellow. He is a faculty member in the Department of Forest Resources Management at the University of British Columbia, and holds a Canada Research Chair (CRC) in remote sensing. Nicholas obtained his PhD from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne Australia, and then worked at CSIRO, the Australian government research labs, for 10 years prior to moving to UBC in 2004. Nicholas’ research focuses on the application of remote sensing imagery to the monitoring and mapping of forest and vegetation health and productivity. During his time at the RSGA, he supported our postgraduate students, provided research and educational seminars, developed links between UC and UBC graduate students, and taught us all his unique ability to combine fun and hard work.

Google Scholar