Smart Forest Laboratory 2023

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

Michael Schaeffer

Germany

Graduated from University of Applied Sciences Koblenz (MSc). Michael"s research is focused on the hydrological contribution of snowmelt in heavy snowfall mountainous regions in Japan and southern Germany.

Nhung Tran

Vietnam

Graduated from Bioenvironment, 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.

Marco Conciatori

Italy

Student from University of Parma. Marco is presently in an internship in our laboratory for a period of three month. His study is focused on the prediction of landslides in Italy using Machine Learning. 

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.

Mizuki Hasegawa

Japan

Graduated from Agricultural Management at Yamagata University. Mizuk is now in the DD Program (YU/LUH and her study is about using algorithms and combined UAV flight plans to obtain cedar dendrometric parameters in steep slopes.

Sergi Garcia

Spain

Graduated from 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.

Vladislav Bukin

Russia

Graduated from Russian State Hydrometeorological University in the field of Environmental Monitoring. Vladislav"s research focuses on evaluating the nutrient loss in trees and forests affected by severe bark beetle outbreaks.

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.

Anna Trigubenko

Russia

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

Leonardo Huisacayna

Peru

Graduated from Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in the field of Software Development. . Leonardo is developing algorithms that can be applied for tree species identification and working on software that can facilitate forest management. 

Noboru Kojima

Japan

Graduated from 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.

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.

Takashi Iwamura

Japan

Takashi is a fourth year student and his study is focused on the comparison of UAV flights at different heights in steep slopes using the following terrain function. His aim is to evaluate the pros and cons in flight resources use and image quality.

Yibin Shi

China

Yibin is a fourth year student and his study is focused on the comparison of UAV flight heights  and UAV camera angles. His aim is to evaluate the most efficient combination to create dense point clouds for forest 3D models.

Kohei 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.