NEWS AND EVENTS / JUNE 2026
From Gainesville to Vienna: NextGenCarbon scientists contributed on both sides of the Atlantic
Tue 09 June 2026, NGC Communication Team
The first week of May was a particularly busy period for NextGenCarbon scientists, with two major conferences taking place in parallel. The international ForestSAT conference was held in Gainesville, Florida, while EGU General Assembly 2026, one of the Europe’s largest geoscience conferences, took place in Vienna, Austria. Both conferences brought together leading researchers, experts and policymakers to discuss topics including Earth observation, forest monitoring, carbon dynamics, remote sensing, and climate change, promoting interdisciplinary research exchange and collaboration.
ForestSAT Florida: topics filled with large scale European projects, machine learning and new Earth observation products
NGC coordinator Rubén Valbuena chaired the session "Large-scale European projects supporting current policy making at the EU" at the ForestSAT conference. He highlighted how large EU-funded projects such as NextGenCarbon, FORWARDS Project, TRANSFORMIT Project, and MoniFun contribute to and support EU policy objectives.
- In Europe we are facing a pivotal moment in policy-making for forests in general, and much in particular regarding forest monitoring. An ecosystem of large-scale research projects on forest monitoring, all of them finding synergies through collaborative work, is allowing us to tackle the key research questions that are now critical to safeguarding the future of European forests, says Rubén.
An ecosystem of large-scale research projects on forest monitoring, all of them finding synergies through collaborative work, is allowing us to tackle the key research questions that are now critical to safeguarding the future of European forests. - Rubén Valbuena
NextGenCarbon coordinator Rubén Valbuena presenting the project at ForestSAT 2026. Photo: Elia Vangi.
In the same session, Giovanni D’Amico from the University of Florence presented “Harmonized Remote Sensing products and disturbance reference data to support European forest monitoring and Multifunctionality Assessment”. The presentation highlighted two complementary European initiatives developed within the FORWARDS and MONIFUN projects and was also shared as part of the NextGenCarbon activities.
- The contribution focused on integrating large-scale forest disturbance reference datasets with harmonized remote sensing products for applications related to carbon dynamics, forest recovery, resilience assessment, and large-scale monitoring. These datasets can contribute to the analysis of forest disturbance impacts on carbon dynamics, the evaluation of post-disturbance recovery trajectories, and the integration of Earth observation data into large-scale monitoring and modelling frameworks. The conference also fostered exchanges with researchers working on interoperable datasets, scalable workflows, and future applications supporting EU forest monitoring and climate policy, says Giovanni.
Giovanni D'Amico (left) and Elia Vangi (right) speaking at ForestSAT2026. Photo: WP3 UNIFI Team.
In the session “Sampling and Statistical Inference in Forestry “, Elia Vangi from the University of Florence presented preliminary results on the impact of climate change on forest phenology, as well as related effects on productivity and carbon uptake across different ecosystems. His talk, titled “Investigating climate-phenology relationships among the most common Italian forest species using Sentinel-2-derived vegetation phenology and productivity products“ focused on integrating machine learning and new EO (Earth Observation) products.
- The Copernicus VPP product serves as a direct operational asset for our work in NextGenCarbon, specifically because it bridges the gap between structural remote sensing and functional ecosystem dynamics. They provide high-resolution, standardized metrics of seasonal timing and productivity needed to decouple climate signals from actual biomass changes. By integrating this product, we can discern rapid disturbances from those generated by slow processes, like drought, that alter the seasonal capacity of European forests to sequester carbon, says Elia.
Elia also presented a poster titled “National small-area estimation in Italy Mapping growing stock volume with Sentinel-2 and NFI data”, which describes and applies a small-area estimation approach at the national level in Italy. The method enables mapping with uncertainty estimates by combining field and Earth Observation data.
- Combining new Earth Observation products with machine learning allows us to translate complex satellite data into clear, actionable insights about forest disturbances and dynamics across entire continents. Machine learning algorithms excel at analysing vast time series of satellite imagery to separate normal seasonal changes from actual climate stress, such as slow-onset droughts, to dynamically model how much carbon a forest is losing or gaining in real time. I just came back from the ForestSAT 2026 conference in Gainesville, where it was clear the entire field is moving in this direction. There was a strong focus on using artificial intelligence with remote sensing, alongside some incredible work on 3D and laser scanning data. The environment there was fantastic—it was great to catch up with old friends and meet new colleagues in such a welcoming atmosphere, reflected Elia after the conference in Florida.
EGU2026 Vienna: discussions on the impacts of insect-driven tree mortality and understanding inter-annual variation of model parameters
João Basso from Leipzig University presented his preliminary results "Impacts of insect-driven tree mortality on land-surface water and energy exchanges". The results are providing observational constraints on carbon and water impacts of forest disturbances, which will be needed to evaluate the Land surface models in Scenario Modelling of the Carbon Cycle team within NextGenCarbon. Ana Bastos, the leader of the team, is among the authors of the abstract.
Ranit De from Max Planck Institute of Biogeochemistry Jena presented the poster "Towards Understanding the Inter-Annual Variation of Model Parameters Used to Simulate Gross Primary Productivity".
- One of the main areas of interest from my PhD research is understanding inter-annual variability (IAV) in carbon fluxes. I mainly worked with light-use efficiency and optimality-based models. These models either share a common basis for simulating photosynthesis in more advanced land surface models (LSMs) or are used for producing global carbon flux products by assimilating remote-sensing data. In my poster presented at EGU2026, I highlighted the importance of both spatial and annual calibration of model parameters to better capture IAV of gross primary production. Within our Data Assimilation Developments & Model-Data Fusion team in NextGenCarbon, we would aim to better understand and predict the spatio-temporal variability of these parameters using hybrid modelling approaches. In the broader context of the NextGenCrabon project, the implications of spatially and temporally varying parameters might be tested in LSMs to improve current data assimilation approaches.
Ranit De presenting his poster at EGU26. Photos: Dilşad Kurdak, ELLIS Unit Jena.
- The poster session at EGU2026 was also a great opportunity to have some focused one-on-one discussions around the poster. Even though EGU2026 is undeniably large, which can be sometimes challenging to navigate, what I particularly appreciate about it is the breadth of the programme: alongside the scientific sessions, there was some nice offering of short courses, networking events, and open debates around issues in academia, says Ranit.