The South Central and Eastern European Regional Information Network (SCERIN)

Petya Krasteva Entcheva Campbell, NASA GSFC/JCET/UMBC, petya.campbell@nasa.gov (Presenter)
Jana Albrechtova, Charles University in Prague, albrecht@natur.cuni.cz
Ioan Abrudan, Transylvania University of Brasov, abrudan@unitbv.ro

The South Central and East European Regional Information Network (SCERIN) is an established network of the Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics (GOFC-GOLD) project of the Global Terrestrial Observation System (GTOS). The geographic domain of SCERIN encompasses a large region of South Central and Eastern Europe (SCEE), including the Danube, Dnepr, Dniester, Odra, and Vistula watersheds, and the western and southern Black Sea coast. SCERIN strives to ensure continuity of remote sensing data products through collaboration between the scientists, professionals, and existing remote sensing networks in the region. Currently, SCERIN includes scientists and professionals from academia, research and operational agencies, and from observational networks throughout the SCEE, including representatives from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and Ukraine.

Most of SCEE has undergone extensive land-use practices, which have rendered many of the natural processes of adaptation dysfunctional. This opens the possibility—and the responsibility—of applying planned, large scale measures (i.e., human initiatives) to support and enhance the natural processes. In addition, SCEE is densely populated, and ever-growing urbanization plays an important role in food production and industrial activities. The economic and social restructuring following the political transition since the end of the twentieth century has not reached a stable phase yet, thus considerably intensifying the socioeconomic consequences of land-cover change.

The goals of SCERIN, are to improve cooperation in developing methods for monitoring the dynamics, stability, and vulnerability of the major regional ecosystems of SCEE for future effective sustainable management and preservation, not only on the local but also regional and pan-European levels. SCERIN promotes the production and provision of land surface observations for the satellite data user communities in SCEE to ensure continuous, high-quality observations for operational and management applications, and feasible and sustainable natural resources management practices.

SCERIN has identified the following regional cross-cutting LCLUC thematic areas and priority remote sensing research applications: monitoring the effects of drought and other stress factors (e.g. pollution) on vegetation for ecological stability; maintaining food, fiber and agricultural production and security; indentifying forest change processes and natural, environmental, and social driving forces; and assessing the environmental consequences of urbanization.

To date, SCERIN has conducted three workshops to help address regional issues of common interest: the SCERIN Formulation Workshop in 2012, and SCERIN-1 and -2 Meetings in 2013 and 2014, respectively. As a result of these workshops, a strong SCERIN group has been established, consisting of regional researchers, remote-sensing experts, and professionals from operational agencies. The capacity-building activities, currently targeted by SCERIN, include regional level comparison and validation of the standard land-cover classification products at moderate (e.g., Landsat, Sentinel-2) and coarse (e.g., MERIS, VIIRS, MODIS, and Sentinel-3) resolutions. They also include establishing a regional network of product validation sites and establishing a regional database relating land-cover characterization with spectral and spatial diversity.

The forthcoming SCERIN-3 workshop will be held at the Transylvania University of Brasov in Romania, July 13-15, 2015, hosted by Professor Ioan Abrudan [Transylvania University of Brasov]. It will be the first SCERIN Capacity Building Workshop (CBW) designed to facilitate discussions between the three SCERIN Focus Groups. The objectives of SCERIN CBW are to: provide a forum for the SCERIN Focus Groups to resolve specific issues and actions as requested by the community and to enhance capacity building in the region; address SCEE priority topics, focusing on remote sensing in forest management and administration, monitoring of protected areas, and assessment of forest disturbance; review the requirements and availability of satellite data, products, and approaches for land-cover monitoring in SCEE; outline the specific land-cover and land-use change research, applications, and development needs in SCEE; and inform participants about ongoing major scientific efforts and projects, with possible contributions and follow-up activities for SCERIN participants. The SCERIN-3 CBW will include a day of training for graduate students and early career professionals.

The SCERIN framework is providing a platform for collaboration among remote sensing experts working on different projects in SCEE, which is particularly important since it facilitates the progress and consistent implementation of remote sensing and LCLUC methodology in the region. SCERIN activities promote the exchange of multidisciplinary regional expertise from the fields of geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, ecology, and ecosystem and plant biology all needed to study ecosystem processes and LCLUC on local, regional, and continental scales.

There is a need for continued development and support of international collaborations in remote sensing and LCLUC scientific research. The SCERIN network has strong linkages with the Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative (NEESPI), and is poised well to contribute to the emerging new Northern Eurasia’s Future Initiative (NEFI) under the auspices of Future Earth program. SCERIN activities and meetings offer a valid, functional platform for developing useful professional collaborations. With technological advances in global remote sensing, the need for regional networks, such as SCERIN, will not diminish but, on the contrary, will increase, for regional validation of global remote sensing products and providing feedback to the sattelite agencies and information providers.

Presentation: 2015_Poster_Campbell_236_228.pdf (930k)

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  General Contributions   (Tue 4:35 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Campbell, Petya: Assessing ecosystem diversity and urban boundaries using surface reflectance and emissivity at varying spectral and spatial scales ...details
• Related Activity: Related Activity or Previously Funded CC&E Activity not listed ...details

Poster Location ID: 236