Offre en lien avec l’Action/le Réseau : – — –/– — –

Laboratoire/Entreprise : SIEO Lab Romania/LISTIC France
Durée : 36 mois
Contact : yajing.yan@univ-smb.fr
Date limite de publication : 2025-12-15

Contexte :

Sujet :
Distinct agricultural crops and practices play a central role in shaping the culture and cultural heritage of rural communities in specific regions. The Brașov region in Romania, for instance, is particularly renowned for its potato and sugar beet cultivation, which has earned it the designation ‘Potato Country’. However, these traditional crops are increasingly being replaced by others, such as rapeseed, which are more resilient and better adapted to changing climate conditions. This shift contributes to the loss of cultural heritage. Remote sensing, and in particular Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), provides valuable insights into vegetation structure, soil roughness, and soil moisture. The Copernicus program of the European Commission, together with other space agencies, offers free and regularly updated data for the long-term monitoring of agricultural systems. In this project, conducted in close collaboration between French and Romanian research units, we aim at contributing to the preservation of cultural heritage in the selected region of Romania, while the ultimate goal is to take steps towards the development of global strategies to address climate change. In order to reach the aim, we leverage multi-modal, multi-temporal SAR data to (i) quantify the impact of climate change on traditional agricultural crops, (ii) estimate the water demand of these crops, (iii) evaluate nature-based solutions to preserve soil quality, and (iv) predict future dynamics.

Research aims: leverage multi-modal (multi-frequency, multi-resolution, multi-polarization, complex signal/amplitude/interferometric coherence/phase), multi-temporal SAR data to monitor the crop growth, crop fields roughness and moisture evolution.

Methodology:
• Analyze the historical data of agricultural crops on the identified cultural heritage sites in Romania
• Multi-modal multi-temporal SAR data collection and pre-processing
• Perform SAR data analysis for the assessment of climate change impact
– crop structure evolution analysis
– soil roughness evolution analysis
– soil moisture evolution analysis
– correlation analysis with in situ data
• Predict the future dynamics with meteorological data
• Create open access data sets and tutorials for the community

Profil du candidat :
We seek for Ph.D candidates with Master degrees on remote sensing, environment and geosciences, information science. Good English skill is necessary for communication. The Ph.D student will spend 24 months in Romania and 12 months in France.

Formation et compétences requises :

Adresse d’emploi :
Space Intelligence and Earth Observation Research Laboratory, Transilvania University of Brasov, Romania,
LISTIC, University Savoie Mont Blanc, Annecy, France

Document attaché : 202511051450_PhD_subject_crop_monitoring.pdf