AI4Forest

Funding and duration:

Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) | 2023-2027

Summary:

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges humanity will face over the course of this century. The preservation of ecosystems, especially forests, is an important part of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Up-to-date and high-resolution information on the condition and carbon balance of forests in the EU and globally is crucial in this context. It can help assess the current state of forest carbon sinks, predict their future state and take appropriate action against forest loss and for improved forest management strategies. Advances in both Earth observation and artificial intelligence (AI) have paved the way for automated forest monitoring using satellite data. AI4Forest will provide new forest maps of Europe and the world with unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution and precision. This will be achieved by developing specific AI methods adapted to the needs of the data and tasks. In addition, the project has a particular focus on the efficient implementation of the underlying procedures. Specifically, AI4Forest will produce scalable and efficient AI techniques, with the aim of reducing both the computational and storage costs for the training and application phases of the corresponding AI models. The results obtained by AI4Forest will thus have an impact on both forest monitoring and scalable AI techniques. Finally, AI4Forest will expand the current AI capacities in France and Germany and further strengthen bilateral cooperation in this interdisciplinary field.