PhD Defense Tiziana Koch
Tiziana Koch successfully defended her PhD dissertation! In her dissertation she explored how forest species, their distribution, health status, and functioning can be continuouly monitored using Sentinel-2 data.
Tiziana created a spectrally consistent, temporally continuous, and geometrically stable Sentinel-2 time series for Switzerland, which is known for its challenging topography and large environmental gradients. She developed and tested methods to extract tree species information from time series data. By combining Sentinel-2 satellite data with ground-based measurements, she was able to study the distribution of tree species-specific traits, their seasonal dynamics, and overall forest health across large areas.
With her work she contributed to advance forest monitoring by moving from static mapping to more dynamic assessments, tracking process-oriented indicators of forest function and change. This approach can help to better understand how forests respond to environmental change over time.
Her research shows that Sentinel-2 time series can deliver meaningful, scalable, and transferable indicators of forest species, their functioning and health. This makes it possible to detect stress events early and even track changes in functional diversity. It thereby supports evidence-based forest management in times of climate change.
Congratulations on your successful defense, Tiziana!