Our current activities include the following topics:
LULUCF
The Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) activity addresses emissions and removals of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from six land uses: forests, cropland (only CO2), grasslands (only CO2), wetlands, settlements and other lands. We provide scientific and technical support on LULUCF issues to EC Services (DG CLIMA), the European Environment Agency, the EU Member States, and to other international bodies.
Forest Biomass
We investigate where and how biomass flows today and create models to simulate future scenarios. We analyse interactions between forest resources and socio-economic processes. Multiple streams of data are available to assess these interactions, starting from the mapping of biomass availability, going through forest management data and then through the flows of biomass through the industry.
Forest and Climate Change
We research how climate change will reshape European forests, and particularly which tree species will be able to grow where.
Forest Ecosystem Condition, Services, and Biodiversity
Forest ecosystems in good condition support the provision of ecosystem services to humans. These constitute the direct and indirect contributions of forest ecosystems to human wellbeing. Our activities focus on mapping and assessment of forest ecosystem condition and services; measuring changes in condition resulting from anthropogenic and natural disturbances; economic valuation, and environmental and economic accounting.
Landscape Pattern Analysis
Methods and software to analyse landscape patterns in digital imagery.
Forest Disturbances
Forest disturbance regimes are changing with the climate. While wildfires are being operationally monitored as part of the Copernicus programme, there is currently no systematic detection or mapping of forest disturbances caused by wind storms, insect outbreaks, diseases, droughts, or logging. Our research helps address this among others by collecting and sharing reference information and by facilitating the analysis of remote sensing data for forest disturbance detection and monitoring.
Forest Fires
Mapping and monitoring of forest fires in European forests and wildfires on Global scale.