GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE PLANNING THROUGH EO AND GIS ANALYSIS: THE CANOPY PLAN OF LIÈGE, BELGIUM, TO MITIGATE ITS URBAN HEAT ISLAND

This study examines the rate of permafrost degradation, in the form of the transition from intact well-drained palsa to fully thawed and inundated fen at the Stordalen mire, Abisko, Sweden. Across the 14 hectares of the palsa mire, we demonstrate a 5-fold acceleration of the degradation in 2019–2021 compared to previous periods (1970–2014) which might lead to a pool of 12 metric tons of organic carbon exposed annually for the topsoil (23 cm depth), and an increase of ~1.3%/year of GHG emissions.

Predicting shifts in local extreme weather under global warming is key for climate adaptation, but climate projections lack detail. A new tool, EXSoDOS, combines ground measurements, reanalysis data, and climate models to improve estimates of extreme weather, aiding better risk planning. Tested in five regions, it accurately captures temperature, rainfall, and wind extremes including their past changes, outperforming raw model data. Results show worsening heat (stress) and precipitation by 2100.

We built a spatially explicit annual plant-functional-type (PFT) dataset for 1992–2020 exhibiting intra-class spatial variability in PFT fractional cover at 300 m. For each year, 14 maps of percentage cover are produced: bare soil, water, permanent snow/ice, built, managed grasses, natural grasses, and trees and shrubs, each split into leaf type and seasonality. Model simulations indicate significant differences in simulated carbon, water, and energy fluxes in some regions using this new set.

This paper presents nine standardized crop type reference datasets collected between 2013 and 2020 in seven tropical countries. It aims at participating in the difficult exercise of mapping agricultural land use through satellite image classification in those complex areas where few ground truth or census data are available. These quality-controlled datasets were collected in the framework of the international JECAM initiative and contain 27 074 polygons documented by detailed keywords.