FoDiM PID2020-114062RA-I00 ← Mihai Tanase
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades; Agencia Estatal de Investigación
Proyecto PID2020-114062RA-I00 financiado por MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.
Completed project · principal investigator

Near-real-time forest disturbance monitoring

Early warning matters for forest management: an Earth-Observation monitoring programme has to separate ephemeral episodes from lasting damage, quickly and over large regions. FoDiM built a national database of forest disturbance spanning four decades, and a near-real-time monitoring framework that combines infrequent high-resolution national airborne data with frequently acquired medium-resolution satellite imagery.

Objectives

O1

Four decades of forest disturbance

Appraise spatial and temporal trends in forest disturbance by creating an open-access national database from the historical Earth Observation archive. Which disturbances affect the Spanish forests, where and when; whether the trends have changed over the past forty years; and how those trends relate to climate, forest type and management.

O2

A near-real-time monitoring framework

Integrate low-frequency, high-resolution (<10 m) national airborne data with frequently acquired medium-resolution (10–50 m) spaceborne imagery into a single monitoring framework, tested over selected large demonstrator areas.

Approach

Time seriesLandsat 1985–2023, CCDC-SMA

Continuous Change Detection and Classification with spectral mixture analysis, run at 30 m over continental Spain, giving first year of disturbance, severity, recovery time, month of detection and type of change.

Demonstrator areasBasque Country, Aragon, Madrid, Castilla

Large demonstrator areas used to develop and test the near-real-time framework against national airborne lidar and in-situ data.

Sensor integrationPNOA lidar + Sentinel-1/2 + TanDEM-X

Airborne lidar for structure, radar and optical time series for frequency; disturbance history as a predictor for the forest variables.

Regime analysis1,022 hexagonal grids, Theil-Sen trends

Disturbance size, severity and frequency summarised nationally, by biome and by forest type, with an outlier-insensitive trend estimator.

Results

Demonstrator areas
Demonstrator areas The large demonstrator areas used to develop and test the near-real-time framework, with protected areas and regional borders. FoDiM project application
Forest disturbance in Spain, 1985–2023
Forest disturbance in Spain, 1985–2023 A, first year of disturbance; B, severity; C, recovery time; D, month of detection; E, type of change. Snapshots are 5 km across. Miguel et al. 2024, Environmental Research

Publications

Assessing Forest Structure and Biomass with Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing: Insights from Mediterranean and Temperate Forests
Maria Cristina Mihai; Sofia Miguel; Ignacio Borlaf-Mena; Julián Tijerín-Triviño; Mihai Tanase
Forests, 2025
Hydraulic Strategies Modulate Forest Productivity Responses to Hotter Droughts
Julián Tijerín‐Triviño; Xavier Serra‐Maluquer; Raúl García‐Valdés; Miguel Ángel Zavala; Mariano García; Julen Astigarraga; Verónica Cruz‐Alonso; Pedro Rebollo; Antonio Gazol; Marina Rodes‐Blanco; Mihai Andrei Tanase; Paloma Ruiz‐Benito
Global Change Biology, 2025
Forest disturbance regimes and trends in continental Spain (1985–2023) using dense landsat time series
S. Miguel; P. Ruiz-Benito; P. Rebollo; A. Viana-Soto; M.C. Mihai; A. García-Martín; M. Tanase
Environmental Research, 2024
Long-term annual estimation of forest above ground biomass, canopy cover, and height from airborne and spaceborne sensors synergies in the Iberian Peninsula
M.A. Tanase; M.C. Mihai; S. Miguel; A. Cantero; J. Tijerin; P. Ruiz-Benito; D. Domingo; A. Garcia-Martin; C. Aponte; M.T. Lamelas
Environmental Research, 2024
Characterizing Live Fuel Moisture Content from Active and Passive Sensors in a Mediterranean Environment
Mihai A. Tanase; Juan Pedro Gonzalez Nova; Eva Marino; Cristina Aponte; Jose Luis Tomé; Lucia Yáñez; Javier Madrigal; Mercedes Guijarro; Carmen Hernando
Forests, 2022

Team

Mihai TanasePrincipal investigator · University of Alcalá
María Teresa Lamelas GraciaResearch team · Centro Universitario de la Defensa, Zaragoza
Alberto García MartínResearch team · Centro Universitario de la Defensa, Zaragoza
Cristina Aponte PeralesResearch team
Raquel Montorio LloveríaWork team
Darío Domingo RuizWork team
Alba Viana SotoWork team
Ignacio Borlaf MenaWork team