Current and Planned Projects
(we're looking for motivated students and postdocs to conduct some of the following projects)
Other potential future topics
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Past Projects
We develop empirical and biophysical models using satellite data for a continuous monitoring of vegetation dynamics and soil-water-plant related processes. For example, the empirical PaVI-E and the biophysical RS-Met and Crop RS-Met models were developed to assess evapotranspiration (ET), soil water content and CO2-uptake in natural and agricultural vegetation systems at high to moderate spatial resolutions. A phenology-based method to monitor woody and herbaceous vegetation dynamics at a sub-pixel scale was also developed based on time series analysis of MODIS-derived vegetation indices.
We use these tools to explore changes in vegetation composition, ecosystem fluxes, water yield (WY = Rain-ET) and water use efficiency (WUE = carbon/ET) in Mediterranean forests and woodlands as well as to assess water status in commercial crop fields. David Helman is also involved in a COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action on 'Harmonization of Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) techniques for agricultural and natural ecosystems monitoring' as a vice-leader of WG3 on soil moisture monitoring. |