PhD Candidate in Geospatial Data Science and Environment with a focus on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (f/m) - Ref: 25-12

Inspiration

Air pollution is continuing to rise. It harms human health, crops and species, and will harm forest trees in the coming decades (up to 2040 and beyond). Despite this, the exposure of forest trees to ozone (O3) and methane (CH4) has not yet been evaluated in Luxembourg at a fine spatial and temporal scale.

Innovation

The objectives of FORFUS-RT3.3 are: (a) to quantify O3 and CH4 across Luxembourg at a very fine spatial (e.g. 100m) and temporal resolution (daily/monthly), (b) to assess the temporal and spatial distribution and identify hotspots of O3/CH4 pollution in forested areas across Luxembourg, (c) to create a geospatial database of O3/CH4, crops, and (dead) forest trees by combining different complementary sources of information (e.g. remote sensing, satellite imagery, LiDAR, orthophotomaps), and (d) to build a decision support system (Dashboard) to evaluate the exposure of forests to O3/CH4 and thereby stakeholders in developing public policies to protect forests.

Impact

The scientific knowledge generated in this project will help identify the exposure of forest trees to air pollution, and overall, the causes of tree death. The understanding and methods developed as part of the project are expected to be useful for similar studies at different sites around the world, in order to provide a policy recommendation (action plan) for mitigating forest exposure to air pollution. In a nutshell, we will contribute to: (a) increasing scientific knowledge by sensing the environment in a new way using mobile-based technology (satellite S5P) and fixed-based sensor network (field work), (b) societal impact by developing a dashboard DSS tool for stakeholders and the research community, and (c) a new data input for the PRIDE-DTU, as well as to the national digital twin initiative.

LISER is a publicly funded research institute located in Luxembourg and dedicated to applied empirical research in economic, social and spatial sciences. The Institute attracts top researchers from all over the world and high-level student training is a vibrant part of the Institute’s activities. LISER staff consists of approx. 200 employees, about 60% of the staff being researchers; mainly from the fields of economics, geography and sociology. The vision of the institute is to be a socio-economic research institute internationally recognised, focused on scientific excellence and societal impact, able to contribute through multi-disciplinary and intersectoral research, in an active and inclusive way to a sustainable and inclusive society at national and international level.

The institute is located on the new Belval campus in the south of Luxembourg (Cité des Sciences, Luxembourg), which hosts the University of Luxembourg and a substantial part of the country’s publicly funded research facilities, i.e. LISER, the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) cross-national data centre, the Luxembourg institutes of Health (LIH) and of Science and Technology (LIST). Information on research in Luxembourg is accessible via the national EURAXESS platform.

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Remote Sensing, Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or Geography ;
• Strong proficiency in Python is required ;
• Knowledge of remote sensing, GIS, and Copernicus data is a plus ;
• Excellent command of English.