Research program
The Parktrends project:
The goal of the Parktrends project is to build a network of platforms for engaged tropical forest monitoring in multiple protected areas in America and abroad. Different from centralized data repositories such as the Global Forest Watch platform, this is a project that engages with park managers directly, through feedback and regular interactions, in the understanding of local forest plant community composition, ecological functions, and disturbance trends in and around their reserves.
For mapping forest types, we use a combination of multiple optical and radar imagery sources, remotely sensed indices for ecological function as well as terrain information and process these using machine learning classification techniques. For mapping disturbances, we apply spatiotemporal data clustering techniques to quantify emerging trends from sub-annual forest loss data obtained from dense time series of Landsat, Sentinel and Planet Labs satellite imagery. We continuously investigate GIS and remote sensing-based methodological approaches to improve these spatial datasets.
We currently work with partners in a site in Yucatan, Mexico; a management region in Cartago, Costa Rica and a management region in western Venezuela. We aim to improve the system and expand to other reserves of critical importance for nature conservation. See demo site and platform >>
Dynamics of Tropical Forest Socio-Environmental Systems:
We are interested in addressing the question of how tropical forest management systems are affected by gradual and sudden socioeconomic change (driven by political instability, climate change, diseases, natural disasters, armed conflicts, etc). We propose to investigate the resilience capacity of management systems by studying: 1) the impact of socioeconomic change on the relationship between demographics, land use, land tenure, economic conditions, and forest clearing dynamics, 2) the impact of socioeconomic change on the relationship between forest clearing dynamics and species diversity/carbon density maintenance and 3) the relationship between community social, cultural and financial coping strategies and socio-ecological resilience.
