Exploring Forest Disturbances: Integrating Geospatial AI and Remote Sensing Techniques

Dear Colleagues,

We cordially invite you to submit articles for the upcoming Special Issue of the Forests magazine, entitled ‘Exploring Forest Disturbances: Integrating Geospatial AI and Remote Sensing Techniques’. Forest disturbances such as fires, windbreaks, insect infestations, droughts, illegal logging and dieback caused by industrial emissions significantly impact forest ecosystems and their key ecological functions, including the provision of ecosystem services such as carbon storage, biodiversity, soil protection and hydrological safety.

Remote sensing techniques with new sensors (including terrestrial, UAV, airborne and satellite-based) are increasingly well-suited for monitoring and analysing these changes in near real time, providing a unique historical perspective that can sometimes go back several decades. Breakthrough progress is currently being made in remote sensing (RS) thanks to the fusion of sensors (active and passive), the development of geospatial artificial intelligence (geospatial AI), and the increasingly sophisticated analyses of time series data (including in situ data, or GIS).

This Special Issue aims to present the latest methods and applications that fundamentally contribute to the use of remote sensing data in observing forest disturbances. We welcome research from any region of the world, provided it presents an innovative approach. Each manuscript must include a reliable validation of the results and an assessment of the uncertainty of their acquisition. We believe that, with your contribution, we will create a strong, influential publication that will become an important reference point in the modern monitoring of forest ecosystems on our planet.

Prof. Dr. Piotr Wężyk
Dr. Zeinab Shirvani
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.