Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Laboratory of Forest Management and Remote Sensing

The Laboratory of Forest Management and Remote Sensing is a part of the Department of Forestry and Natural Environment which is one of the 44 departments of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The department is responsible for training more than 500 undergraduate and about 200 graduate students on all aspects of ecology and management of forest and range resources.

The unit carries out graduate and postgraduate teaching and is involved in research in the fields of environmental monitoring and management of natural ecosystems by using modern analysis methods and techniques including Remote Sensing, Geographic Information Systems, and Digital Photogrammetry. The Laboratory also organises lectures and seminars, national and international conferences, and encourages scientific cooperation and exchange with corresponding laboratories of Greek and foreign organisations, institutes, universities, companies and other public and private enterprises.

In recent years, the unit has undertaken research in the fields of environmental resource management, vegetation dryness monitoring, desertification modeling, soil erosion mapping, environmental degradation assessment, landscape ecology, forest fire modeling, and, biodiversity monitoring using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing (RS) and Decision Support Systems (DSS).

Members of the laboratory have been involved in a large number of National as well as EU-funded projects (current projects: 4Growth, GreenEO, The Golden Twins, AfroGrow, gOFFi, Fire-Scene, FirEUrisk, Resense, Sat4Φorest).

Role in LandShift

Our main role in LandShift is to contribute as experts in Earth Observation (EO) data, leveraging AI for enhanced forest management, assessing net removals from LULUCF, and developing and evaluating MRV frameworks for soil health.

In the LandShift project, we lead Task 1.4, focusing on identifying the spectrum of EU land-use sector objectives and corresponding indicators. Additionally, we contribute to several key tasks across the project, including T1.5, T2.1, T2.3, T2.5, T3.1, T4.1, T4.3, and T6.5. Our involvement spans the analysis of LULUCF patterns, interactions between land cover change, climate, and policy, and the assessment of biomass dynamics and net removals. We also support the identification and adaptation of nature-based solutions (NBS), contributing to the development of actionable, community-aligned strategies. As experts in Earth Observation (EO) and AI, we bring strong technical capacity in spatial data analysis, MRV frameworks for soil health, and the development of EO-based tools for improved forest and land management. Our role enhances the consortium’s ability to generate data-driven, scalable, and sustainable solutions for strategic land use across Europe.

Key People Involved