Dr. Lars Eklundh Professor Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science Lund University Sölvegatan 12, 223 62  LUND Sweden Tel.: +46.46.222 96 55

Research

My main research interest is the use of data from satellites for collecting data for environmental monitoring and mapping in different climatic regions. My current research interest is the utilisation of satellite sensor data for estimation of vegetation growth and biophysical vegetation parameters, such as canopy leaf foliage, primary production, annd phenology. Optical satellite systems like Landsat, Sentinel-2, Terra/MODIS etc. are the primary data sources. An important aim is to develop methods for modelling of carbon fluxes over large areas. Field measurements are important for understanding the satellite signal. I am also interested in utilizing remote sensing in forestry and agriculture.

I am coordinator of SITES Spectral, which carries out continuous field sampling of optical properties, canopy photographs using PhenoCams, and records multispectral and RGB imagery using drones. SITES is a Swedish infrastructure for ecosystem science (see below).

Our need for efficient data analysis has led to the development of methods for processing of time series of satellite sensor data (see the TIMESAT link below). These methods are useful for investigating vegetation seasonality and for studies of long-term and short-term vegetation changes. I currently coordinate a project to study the effects of variations in phenology on swedish forests and forest management in a future climate change perspective. Another research interest is the development of methods for early-warning of insect attacs in boreal forests, based on data from satellites.

I am the joint leader of the Lund Earth Observation research group. Please visit these pages for information about remote sensing and our projects.

Projects/activities

• Satellite phenology research, financed by the Swedish National Space Board, and aiming at methods for estimating phenology from satellite platforms. Here is an article in EARTH describing our results of an advancing spring in N Europe.
• CarboScale - a project finananced by FORMAS to investigate upscaling methodology using flux footprint information and remotely sensed data. The project description is given here: CarboScale_project_overview.pdf.
• SITES Spectral. This is a thematic centre to SITES for management of spectral data collected at Swedish field stations.
• NordSpec: Spectral measurements for calibration/validation of satellite data. See the NordSpec web for further information.
• TIMESAT - software for seasonality information and smoothing of remotely sensed data.
• Remote sensing and biodiversity. This is research on biodiversity and agricultural productivity carried out in collaboration with BECC.
• CROSSDRO - a JPL CLIMATE project on cross-sectional drought effects across European drainage basins: CROSSDRO Web site.
• Monitoring of crop growth for prognostic yield assessment using Sentinel-2.

Please visit Lund Earth Observation research group pages for more information on these project activities.

Teaching

I am involved in education at various GIS and remote sensing courses given by the department. I am the responsible teacher for one 15 ECTS course (NGEN08). I also act as supervisor for BSc, MSc and PhD students.

I have been interested in Geographical Information Systems for many years. Apart from my involvements in GIS courses and research at the department I have worked at the GIS unit of the United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP), and as a consultant. I have also participated in different projects in collaboration with the Lund University GIS centre. 1999 I worked as an editor for a comprehensive Swedish educational GIS book "Geographical information processing - methods and practices"  (Geografisk informationsbehandling – metoder och tillämpningar).

My publications

For a list of my publications please see my entry in the Lund University Resarch Portal.

Various

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