Organization:
Occitanie Region (Region)

Brief description of the Organization launching the Challenge:
One of the sixteen regions of France, Occitanie is the second largest region with 72 000 km2. This area is recognised as a hotspot for biodiversity in France 

Region:
Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée (France)

Description of the Challenge:
Forests in Occitanie are increasingly affected by climate change, including recurrent droughts, wildfires and pest outbreaks. As a result, forest dieback is accelerating, with major consequences for carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation and the regional forest-based economy.

Today,one major challenge remain:

• Operational monitoring of forest health. There is currently no regional-scale monitoring system capable of continuously detecting forest dieback, identifying early signs of degradation and supporting the prioritisation of forestry and conservation actions.

• Develop an operational forest dieback monitoring system based on earth observation data (including radar time series), capable of detecting changes in forest condition, identifying degradation hotspots and providing early-warning indicators.
• Develop satellite-based indicators of forest carbon dynamics, enabling the estimation of changes in carbon sequestration capacity and greenhouse gas emissions associated with forest dieback at the regional scale.

Your Challenge in just one question:
How can AI and data satellite report on the forest health and identify the islands of senescence?

Topics:

• Earth Observation (EO)
• AI & Data Analytics
• Biodiversity & Ecosystems 

Expected role of Service Provider:

• R&D
• Consultancy & Feasibility Study