Research Projects

The dry topical deciduous forests in India are highly sensitive to climate change, with anthropogenic disturbances such as edge effects, logging, forest fires, and droughts exacerbated by human-induced climate change. These disturbances lead to variations in horizontal structure canopy gaps, thinning, and vertical structure branching, which are rarely studied due to the lack of sensor data. This research aims to explore the impacts and drivers of such disturbances in the missing third dimension, using space-borne lidar, Polarimetric Interferometric SAR, and Tomographic SAR to estimate the vertical structure of Indian forests, map the vertical and horizontal disturbances and degradation in forests, and assess the influence of changing climate and increasing anthropogenic activities on forest vertical and horizontal structure. The study addresses the UN Sustainable Development Goal SDG-15 Life on Land and improves our ability to characterize changes in biomass, structure, and function of vegetation under disturbance due to climatic and anthropogenic impacts.