New Publication: Quantifying the Response of German Forests to Drought Events via Satellite Imagery

New Publication: Quantifying the Response of German Forests to Drought Events via Satellite Imagery

May 10, 2021

I’m happy to share my newest publication on “Quantifying the Response of German Forests to Drought Events via Satellite Imagery” in the open access journal Remote Sensing by MDPI together with my co-authors Martin Wegmann and Carina Kübert-Flock.

From the abstract: “Forest systems provide crucial ecosystem functions to our environment, such as balancing carbon stocks and influencing the local, regional and global climate. A trend towards an increasing frequency of climate change induced extreme weather events, including drought, is hereby a major challenge for forest management. Within this context, the application of remote sensing data provides a powerful means for fast, operational and inexpensive investigations over large spatial scales and time. This study was dedicated to explore the potential of satellite data in combination with harmonic analyses for quantifying the vegetation response to drought events in German forests. The harmonic modelling method was compared with a z-score standardization approach and correlated against both, meteorological and topographical data. Optical satellite imagery from Landsat and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was used in combination with three commonly applied vegetation indices. Highest correlation scores based on the harmonic modelling technique were computed for the 6th harmonic degree. MODIS imagery in combination with the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) generated hereby best results for measuring spectral response to drought conditions. Strongest correlation between remote sensing data and meteorological measures were observed for soil moisture and the self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index (scPDSI). Furthermore, forests regions over sandy soils with pine as the dominant tree type were identified to be particularly vulnerable to drought. In addition, topographical analyses suggested mitigated drought affects along hill slopes. While the proposed approaches provide valuable information about vegetation dynamics as a response to meteorological weather conditions, standardized in-situ measurements over larger spatial scales and related to drought quantification are required for further in-depth quality assessment of the used methods and data.”

Full Article: Philipp, M.; Wegmann, M.; Kübert-Flock, C. Quantifying the Response of German Forests to Drought Events via Satellite Imagery. Remote Sens. 2021, 13, 1845. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13091845

you may also like:

New publication on global scaling of urban air quality

New publication on global scaling of urban air quality

Researchers from the Earth Observation Center (EOC) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen and our Earth Observation Research Cluster of the University of Würzburg teamed up for a study on global scaling of urban air quality. The paper titled "Global...

New EAGLEs take off into the Winter Term 2025/26

New EAGLEs take off into the Winter Term 2025/26

As in previous years, the next generation of EAGLE Master's students from around the world gathered at the Earth Observation Research Center (EORC) on the first day of the winter term to begin their studies at the University of Würzburg. Prof. Dr. Tobias Ullmann...

Recording the Sounds of a River

Recording the Sounds of a River

Over the weekend, EORC PI Florian Betz met with Martina Cecchetto and Riccardo Fumigalli from the University of Padua to conduct ambient sound recordings and collect photographs of the Lech River, one of the major tributaries of the upper Danube. The photographs and...

Our PhD Wall is Growing — and So Is Our Research Family!

Our PhD Wall is Growing — and So Is Our Research Family!

It’s been a remarkable year for our research team! The PhD Wall of Fame, showcasing all past and current doctoral researchers, has officially reached its limits — and we’ve had to expand it to make room for even more success stories. So far six PhD defenses have taken...

🎉 A Sweet Surprise for a Special Birthday!

🎉 A Sweet Surprise for a Special Birthday!

At our department, we not only work hard together — we also celebrate the milestones that make our team so special. This week, we had the joy of surprising our wonderful secretary Tine Linge on her 60th birthday! Early in the morning, colleagues gathered to prepare a...