PARTNERS
Background
The European Space Agency (ESA) is organising an Advanced Training Course on Land Remote Sensing with the focus on Earth Observation and Artificial Intelligence for Forestry. This course is dedicated to training the next generation of Earth Observation (EO) scientists and experts working in forestry domain to exploit data from EO missions (e.g. the Copernicus Sentinels) and use Artificial Intelligence (AI) for science and applications development. The course is part of ESA’s EO Science for Society – Scientific Exploitation element of EOEP-5 (the fifth cycle of ESA’s Earth Observation Envelope Programme).
Objectives
The Advanced Training Course on Land Remote Sensing – EO and AI for Forestry aims at:
- Training the next generation of scientists and professionals on remote sensing for land surfaces, with the focus on forestry
- Explaining the theoretical principles, processing algorithms, data products and their use in forestry applications
- Introducing tool and methods for the exploitation of EO satellite data, in particular the Sentinels
- Stimulating the exploitation of EO and AI in the domain of forestry
- Demonstrating cloud-based, large-scale processing (Forestry Thematic Application Platform)
Topics
The training will include theory and hands-on sessions on the following topics:
- Introduction to the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 missions and their performance
- Introduction to ESA BIOMASS mission
- Natural disturbances of forests
- Forest cover monitoring and change detection with optical and SAR remote sensing
- Forest fires detection with optical and thermal remote sensing
- Deforestation and forest degradation
- PolInSAR and TomoSAR for forests
- Forest structure and biomass retrieval using SAR
- Accuracy in forest mapping
- S2 and Landsat timeseries for forests monitoring
- EO Browser
- AI for forests
- Forestry TEP
- Training on the use of SNAP toolbox
Participation
The 5-day course will be held from 20 to 24 September 2021 as a hybrid event. If allowed to travel, lecturers and participants will be encouraged to attend the course at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Participants who cannot travel, due to the Covid regulations, can attend online. Post graduate, PhD students, post-doctoral research scientists and professionals from European countries and Canada interested in the applications of Earth Observation and Artificial Intelligence for Forestry are welcome to apply for the course. Research scientists, students, EO and AI professionals from all other countries are also welcome to apply, subject to availability of space.
Application
- Create a user account in the ConfTool portal and fill in the online application form
- Enter a title and short abstract for a poster to be presented in the poster session (mandatory)
- Upload a reference letter from an academic referee or employer (mandatory)
- After acceptance to the course, provide the full e-poster. Guidelines for the e-poster preparation will be sent in due time.
Important Notes
- The application will be considered completed once the poster abstract and reference letter have been submitted
- Number of participants is limited to a maximum of 50 students on-line and in-place, and is subject to a selection procedure by the organising committee. Onsite participation is preferred. If not possible, the accepted students will have the possibility to attend online
- The academic referee will be notified once the application has been submitted
- Notification of acceptance will be sent end June 2021
- No participation fee is foreseen. If allowed to travel, participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses (financial support is not available)
- The official language of the training course is English.
Programme
Please find HERE the training course programme including the classrooms where lectures/exercises will be held.
Please note that all times are shown in CEST.
Venue
The 10th Advanced Training Course on Land Remote Sensing will be held at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering (FGG), Slovenia, as well as online for participants not allowed to travel.
Schedule and Deadlines
| Application submission opening | 15 March 2021 |
| Application submission closure | 15 May 2021 |
| Notification of acceptance | end June 2021 |
| Training Course | 20-24 September 2021 |
Lecturers
The course will be taught by leading European senior scientists and specialists in optical and microvawe remote sensing.
Frédéric Achard
Joint Research Centre, Italy
Matej Batič
Sinergise, Slovenia
Constantinos Cartalis
University of Athens, Greece
Matjaž Čater
Slovenian Forestry Institute
Sašo Đeroski
Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Magdalena Fitrzyk
RSAC c/o ESA
Andreja Gomboc
University of Nova Gorica, Slovenia
Irena Hajnsek
ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Andrej Kobler
Slovenian Forestry Institute
Dragi Kocev
Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia
Iztok Kramberger
University of Maribor, Slovenia
Marco Lavalle
NASA JPL, USA
Nikica Ogris
Slovenian Forestry Institute
Krištof Oštir
University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Ana Potočnik Buhvald
University of Ljubljana
Fabrizio Ramoino
Serco c/o ESA
Christophe Sannier
SIRS, France
Christiane Schmullius
University of Jena, Germany
Klaus Scipal
ESA, Italy
Mitja Skudnik
Slovenian Forestry Institute
Renne Tergujeff
VTT, Finland
Erkki Tomppo
Aalto University, Finland
Tatjana Veljanovski
ZRC SAZU, Slovenia
Espen Volden
ESA, Italy
Organizing Committee
Espen Volden
ESA
Magdalena Fitrzyk
RSAC c/o ESA
Krištof Oštir
University of Ljubljana
Anka Lisec
University of Ljubljana
Tanja Permozer
Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of Slovenia
Ana Potočnik Buhvald
University of Ljubljana
Matej Račič
University of Ljubljana
Irene Renis
Serco c/o ESA
Mirjam Zdovc
Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of Slovenia