2_ Research projects
TARGET 1 - SURVEY SAMPLING AND STATISTICAL INFERENCE FOR FOREST INVENTORY
MAESTRO - Dynamic sampling and inference for a smart forest monitoring with applications to the French National Forest Inventory
The aim of this research project is to develop and optimize the sampling strategies of the French NFI (a spatially-systematic stratified annual sampling scheme, original and advanced on a global scale), with accuracy, flexibility, and responsiveness as leading preoccupations. 1) A first objective is to describe and evaluate current post-stratified statistical estimators of the NFI, and compare them with existing estimators in Europe in critical contexts. 2) In the context of a strongly heterogeneous forest, a second objective is to evaluate and optimize the forest stratification / post-stratification schemes with variance-bias trade-off and small-sized strata issues as perspectives. 3) A third objective is to re-design the sampling strategy of this inventory and increase its spatio-temporal flexibility and independence, in order to both better inform small forest areas and produce more accurate annual forest information.
PhD student : Trinh Duong Ho Kim (LIF)
People involved: Olivier Bouriaud (main supervisor), Guillaume Chauvet (ENSAI, co-supervisor), Jean-Daniel Bontemps
TARGET 2 - REMOTE SENSING FOR FORESTS AND MULTISOURCE FOREST INVENTORY
MULTISOURCE FOREST INVENTORY
INFORM - Multisource FORest INventory: a new tool to respond to territorial challenges of wood resources estimation and their high-resolution mapping
This project, funded by “Lorraine Université d’Excellence” (LUE) though the impact project DEEPSURF, has started in January 2020 for a 3-years period (PhD project). It involves researchers from the Laboratory of Forest Inventory, UMR SILVA, and ONF Research & Development. The project aims at adapting and enhancing multisource forest inventory approaches to the context of mountainous mixed forests in France. Various small area estimation frameworks will be explored. Emphasize will also be given to the identification and processing of auxiliary data allowing precision gains for forest fluxes and ventilated outputs. Small-area estimation will be applied in the context of the bark beetle sanitary crisis (Vosges mountains) to quantify the amount of forest resources impacted.
PhD student : Ankit Sagar (LIF, Silva)
People Involved : Cédric Vega (IGN, supervisor), Jean-Pierre Renaud (ONF), Christian Piedallu (UMR Silva), Olivier Bouriaud (U Suceava)
IFM-GT [completed] - Multisource Forest Inventory for optimizing forest management strategies in forest landscapes
This project funded by ADEME associates ONF (R&D Nancy), IGN (DIRNE) and IDF, and will start early 2017. The goals are 1) to develop for the first time in France multisource forest inventory (MS-NFI) as a method able to provide accurate estimations of forest resources (area, growing stock and wood increment) at the scale of wide landscapes to regional territories, 2) to test the concept of regional information systems, flexible and updated, as decision support systems for regional optimization of resource management at the regional level.
Post-doctoral researcher : Dinesh Babu Irulappa-Pilai
People involved : Cédric Véga (supervisor), Jean-Pierre Renaud (ONF, R&D Nancy), Michel Chartier (IDF), and Antoine Colin (IGN, DIRNE)
REMOTE SENSING OF FORESTS
CHM-era [completed] - Photogrammetric Canopy Height Models to Enhance forest Resource Assessments
This project funded by Labex ARBRE is a binational project associating UQAM (Québec), INRA (BEF), and ONF (R&D Nancy), and will start early 2017. Its goal is to test the capabilities of photogrammetry to replace ALS (Airborne Laser Scanning) for assessing and mapping forest attributes over large areas. The main objective is to set up a processing chain to extract forest parameters from photogrammetric means with emphasis on the quality of the outcomes. The project will bring together specialists of 3D remote sensing of forest, including both ALS and photogrammetry, forest managers and modellers.
Post-doctoral researcher : Thibaut Souter
People involved : Cédric Véga, Benoît Saint-Onge (UQAM), Laurent Saint-André (BEF), Jean-Pierre Renaud (ONF), Alexandre Piboule (ONF)
TARGET 3 - NEW INDICATORS FOR FORESTS IN A NON-STATIONNARY ENVIRONMENT
CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT MONITORING
RESFORCLIM [completed, p24 of URL] - Monitoring of the French FORest RESources in a CLIMate change context
RESFORCLIM is the follow-up project for GRECOFOR-CC. It started in February 2020 and will last until January 2022. This project is funded by the I-SITE Lorraine Université d’Excellence through the impact DEEPSURF project, IGN and the Labex ARBRE.
The goals of the project are to (1) monitor inter-regional forest productivity trajectories of major French tree species, (2) develop and set up a high-resolution spatial monitoring of forest productivity; and (3) identify the climatic factors driving the occurrence of forest productivity anomalies over the last 15-20 years using NFI data.
People involved : Clémentine Ols, Jean-Daniel Bontemps, Olivier Bouriaud
GRECOFOR-CC [completed] - GRowth of European COniferous FORests in a warmer ClimatiC regime
This project funded by Labex "ARBRE" is a binational project associating BFW (Department of Forest Inventory, Austria), starting early 2017. The goals of the project are to assess the recent growth trends of major european coniferous species under the unprecedently warm climatic regime of the past 15-20 years, using NFI data. Species behaviour in afforestation and natural ranges will be explored.
People involved : Jean-Daniel Bontemps, Thomas Gschwantner, Jean-Christophe Hervé, and Clémentine Ols (post-doctoral scientist joining the project in 2017)
LARGE-SCALE FOREST DYNAMICS AND FOREST TRANSITIONS
MOPROF-CC - MOdeling of French forests' PROductivity in a context of Climate Change
This modelling project funded by ADEME and IGN associates CNRS, IGN, University of Paris-Sud and CIRAD, and has started in 2018. The goals are (i) to predict the impacts of climate change on forest productivity and inquire the interplay with forest management and tree species, and thus assess options for forest adaptation, (ii) to compare the simulations of two models of forest dynamics (the process-based model CASTANEA and the empirical large-scale forest model MARGOT) operating at different scales (stand scale and regional scale). A new version of IGN model MARGOT, climate- and density-dependant will be a critical release of the project.
PhD student : Timothée Audinot (LIF, Silva)
People involved : Jean-Daniel Bontemps (supervisor), Holger Wernsdörfer (AgroParisTech, cosupervisor), Eric Dufrêne (CNRS), Antoine Colin (IGN, DIRNE), Claire Bastick (IGN, DIRNE), Christophe François (CNRS), Marion Jourdan (Post-Doc, University Paris-Sud).
ModForTrans [completed] - A new generation of forest MODels to predict FORest resources in a TRANSitional context
This project is funded by IGN and has started in 2017. Its goal is to develop a new version of the large-scale forest model Margot (Wernsdörfer et al. 2012), initiated by the NFI in 1993, and that has been a matter of little developments since its origin. Yet, non-stationary forest resources (the forest transition), ongoing climate change, and bioeconomy issues call for a new generation of forest models able to capture forest heterogeneity at large scale, and to be responsive to climate change and management drivers in a non-stationary context.
PhD student : Timothée Audinot (LIF, Silva)
People involved : Jean-Daniel Bontemps, Holger Wernsdörfer (AgroParisTech), Patrice Loisel (UMR Mistea, Montpellier)
PhD dissertation published here.
EXPERT-SFM [completed] - Long term expansion of the French forests: causal processes and tools to support Sustainable Forest Management
This project, funded by ADEME, Région Lorraine and Labex ARBRE, started in 2015. It is a joint project associating INRA (EEF) and AgroParisTech (LERFoB). It aims at describing and understanding the drivers of long-term forest expansion in the growing stock of French forests over the 20th century, resulting from forest transition. It will rely on historical NFI data, ancient forest statistics, and models of forest macro-dynamics.
PhD student : Anaïs Denardou
People involved : Jean-Daniel Bontemps (supervisor), Jean-Luc Dupouey (INRA, co-supervisor), Holger Wernsdörfer (AgroParisTech) and Jean-Christophe Hervé
More information: workshop "Centenary of 'Daubrée' statistics", IGN, 2012
VOLUME AND BIOMASS ESTIMATION IN EUROPEAN FORESTS
DIABOLO [completed] - Distributed, Integrated And Harmonised Forest Information For Bioeconomy Outlooks
This EU-funded project gathering 33 partners across Europe started in 2015 and aims at producing better knowledge of forest resources and their ability to sustainably supply forest ecosystem goods and services as required by a broad range of relevant stakeholders. This knowledge will create new opportunities for an innovative, sustainable and inclusive bio-economy in Europe. LIF is co-leader of WP2 with BEF lab (INRA), a WP dedicated to harmonizing growing stock, biomass and carbon estimation and forest state monitoring based on field and high-resolution remote sensing data.
People involved : Cédric Véga, Jean-Christophe Hervé, Jan Hackenberg (post-doc, T-Lidar) and Maryem Fadili (post-doc, photogrammetry)
XyloDensMap - Assessing the wood density of European tree species for biomass stock and increment estimation in the French forests
This project has started in 2015 and is funded by the French Ministry for Agriculture, ADEME, and Region Grand-Est. Increasing attention is paid to the ability of forests to sequester carbon. In this context, the objectives are : (i) to develop and original method for massive measurements of wood density on NFI increment cores, (ii) to consolidate a reference database for wood density in main european tree species (>55,000 increment cores), (iii) inquire the patterns and causes of wood density variation in French forests. The project relies on a structural collaboration between INRAE and IGN.
PhD student : Baptiste Kerfriden
People involved : Jean-Michel Leban (INRAE, project leader), Philippe Jacquin, Stéphanie Wurpillot, Jean-Daniel Bontemps
