Smart Forest Laboratory 2024

Prof. Larry Lopez

The laboratory of Smart Forest in the Faculty of Agriculture, Yamagata University conducts research on the relation of forest ecosystems with their surrounding environment by means of a multidisciplinary approach that involves soil science, meteorology, hydrology and precise remote sensing. The central part of this approach is the use of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) Technology and Deep Learning in order to create more reliable and easy to use forest monitoring systems. Our main aim is to understand the impact of environmental factors on forest ecosystems and the resilience forests have to withstand and adapt to changes in environment and climate. We invite you to join our laboratory to do research with us in Japan and discover the world. You will learn the skills to be a professional of a global society in an international and multidisciplinary educational environment. 

Ph.D. Students

Nhung Tran

Vietnam

Graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture, Yamagata University (MSc), Nhung"s research is focused on the evaluation of biodiversity indexes using UAV- images of vegetation in an altitudinal gradient in subalpine areas of northeastern Japan.

Tobias Leidemer

Germany

Graduated from landscape Sciences (MSc), Leibniz University Hannover. Tobias" research is focused on developing a DL Model using pixel count to evaluate the degree of damage of fir trees affected by bark beetles in Japan and Italy.

Sarangerel Jaranbaaitar

Mongoia

Graduated from Mongolian University of Life Science (MSc). Sarangerel" research is focused on assessing patterns of forest regeneration in wildfire disturbed forests in northern Mongolia using Precise Remote Sensing.

Peiheng Wu

China

Graduated from the Double  Degree Program between YU-LUH (MSc). Peiheng" research is focused on the assessment of environmental drivers controlling the dynamics of treelines in mountains of northeastern Japan. Her research site is the Ou Mountain Range.

Anna Trigubenko

Russia

Graduated from Russian State Hydrometeorological University in the field of Environmental Monitoring. Anna"s research focuses on understanding the climate conditions leading to forest decline in the treeline using Isotopes and tree-ring analysis.

Tien Nguyen

Vietnam

Graduated from Ho Chi Minh International University in the field of Remote Sensing. Tien is now studying the use of Deep Learning Models to automatically identify tree species in a typical temperate mixed forests in northeastern Japan.

Leonardo Huysacaina

Peru

Graduated from Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in the field of Software Development. Leonardo is developing algorithms that can enhance the quality of satellite images using DL models trained with UAV images.

Vladislav Bukin

Russia

Graduated from Russian State Hydrometeorological University in the field of Environmental Monitoring. Vladislav"s research focuses on understanding tree phenology in mixed forests using NDVI calculated from UAV multispectral images..

Master Students

Inke Luedersen

Germany

Graduated from Landscape Sciences at Leibniz University Hannover. Inke is now in the DD Program (LUH/YU) and her study deals with evaluating the resilience of coastal forests affected by the Mega Tsunami of 2011.

Noboru Kojima

Japan

Graduated at the Forestry Department at Yamagata University. Noboru is now in the DD Program (YU/LUH) and his study is understanding the effect of climate change on forests at the treeline in the Italian Alps.

Sergi Garcia

Spain

Graduated at the University of Lleida in Spain in the field of forestry. Sergi is studying the use of algorithms to automatically estimate tree density and biomass from UAV-images of larch plantations in Koiwai Noujo Iwate, Japan Prefecture.

Job Romer

Netherlands

Master Student at Twente University, he is in our laboratory doing an internship for one semester.  His major is Computer Science and he will be working with us to develop Deep Learning Models that we can use in Forestry.

Hisaya Shimizu

Japan

Graduated from the Forestry Department  at Yamagata University. Hisaya is in the DD Program (YU/LUH) and her study is focused on evaluating suitable training datasets of UAV-acquired images to improve the performance of DL Models.

Fabian Gensicke 

Germany

Graduated from Landscape Sciences at Leibniz University Hannover. Fabian is now in the DD Program (LUH/YU) and his study is understanding the ecosystem services of Zao Mountains for the local inhabitants and the visitors.

Iqbal Faishal

Indonesia

Graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture, Gadjha Mada University. Iqbal is dealing with the effect of UAV flying patterns on automatic identification of vegetation using Deep Learning Models in complex forest ecosystems in Mountains.

Jayani Jeewanthika

Sri Lanka

Graduated from the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo in the field of statistics. Jayani is working  at applying statistical models to imagery and Meteorological data in Zao Mountains in order to understand forests' response to extreme events.

Undergraduate Students

Li Jianxin

China

Li is a  fourth year student and his study is the temporal evaluation of tree mortality in winter in subalpine areas of Japan. The database used in his study is  composed of UAV images collected during the period 2019-2023 in October and June.

Kouhei Unno

Japan

Kohei is originally from Tokyo and is now a third year undergraduate student. His research topic is related to the difference of vegetation index (NDVI) of two typical tree species in Japan (Cedar and Larch), growing under the same environmental conditions.