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The world's forests are critical for regulating the global climate and for supporting a wide range of biodiversity. However, with climate change comes an increased risk of forest disturbances, which can have devastating effects on forest ecosystems. To help address this challenge, the University of Eastern Finland is hosting a summer school on the Resilience of Forest to Climate Change: Remote Sensing and Machine Learning Applied to Forest Disturbances.

This summer school will explore how remote sensing and machine learning-based approaches can be used to detect, predict, and analyze changes in forests under climate change. Participants will have the opportunity to attend theory lectures on climate resilience and remote sensing, engage in practical exercises, and take a field trip to disturbed areas. In addition, other subject studies will include the dynamics of boreal forests and forestry in the boreal region.

Participants will work in groups, learning how to retrieve remote sensing data, detect and analyze forest change, classify data, and make predictions of forest damage (i.e. disturbances). This will enable them to better understand the challenges facing forests and develop innovative solutions to address them.

The summer school will take place from August 7 to August 18, 2023, at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu Finland. It is being organized in collaboration with INRAe and the Horizon Europe Eco2adapt project, with support from the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) Division 8 on Forest Environment.

The topical contents of the summer school include forestry in boreal forests, Finland, identifying which forests are prone to disturbances in boreal areas, the use of planetary computer and remote sensing data, monitoring disturbances and their management (i.e., mitigation measures), machine learning theory, and change detection analyses.

The person in charge of the summer school is Frank Berninger, who can be reached at Frank.Berninger@uef.fi. The experts leading the summer school are Frank Berninger (UEF, Finland), Blas Mola (UEF, Finland), Dino Ienco (Inrae, TETIS, France), and Kenji Ose (Inrae, TETIS, France).

To apply for the summer school, please visit https://apply.summerschool.uef.fi/courses/course/129-resilience-forest-climate-change. For questions on the curriculum, please contact Frank.Berninger@uef.fi, and for questions on organization and logistics, please contact merja.haapiainen@uef.fi.

The participation fees for the summer school are as follows: Normal participant fee (500 €), Participant from the UEF partner university (400 €), Incoming UEF exchange student (200 €), Participant from company/organization (1000 €).

This summer school offers a unique opportunity to learn about the challenges facing forests in the face of climate change and to develop innovative solutions to address them. We encourage all those interested to apply and join us in this important effort to protect our forests and the vital services they provide.