PhD defence: Maurice Mugabowindekwe

Maurice Mugabowindekwe defends his thesis,

Remote sensing of trees, integrating deep learning and high-resolution images to map individual trees in East Africa.

Supervisors:
Associate professor Martin Brandt, IGN
Professor Rasmus Fensholt, IGN

Assessment Committee:
Senior lecturer Göran Wallin, BioEnv, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Associate professor Roshanak Darvishzadeh, University of Twente, Enschede, NL
Associate professor Martin Rudbeck Jepsen (chair), IGN

Summary (shortened):
The world is halfway through the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aiming to “Prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems” (UN, 2019). Global efforts are ongoing to restore, protect, and conserve ecosystems such as “Forests, grasslands, croplands, wetlands, savannas, and other terrestrial to inland water ecosystems, marine and coastal ecosystems and urban environments”. The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aligns and is supported by other preceding and ongoing global agreements on ecosystem restoration and sustainability. These include Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Aichi Biodiversity Target, the Kyoto Protocol, the Bonn Challenge, among others. These agreements and initiatives share a common interest to mitigate climate change and halt the biodiversity loss. Among other activities, the restoration of forests and other tree-dominated ecosystems has received a particular attention due trees’ ecological, social, economic, cultural, and aesthetic ecosystem services to support life on earth.

A digital version of the PhD thesis can be obtained from the PhD secretary at phd@ign.ku.dk