City Trees

I learned about the International Master's Program in Photogrammetry and Geoinformatics at the University of Applied Sciences in Stuttgart (Hochschule für Technik – HFT, Stuttgart). I applied to both the DAAD fellowship program and the master's program at HFT and I was lucky because both of my applications were successful. Doing my Master's at HFT was a privilege because I had great mentors and classmates from several dif- ferent countries in Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe. My master's program opened new avenues of research for me in laser scanning technologies to charac- terize and quantify the structure and function of urban forests. I should also mention that my DAAD fellow- ship covered intensive German language classes at the Goethe Institute in Göttingen which enhanced my skills (I started learning German when I was nine years old). After my master's I decided to pursue a PhD in Forest Measurements and Modeling and Urban Forestry in the Forestry Department of Michigan State University (MSU) with Dr. David MacFarlane. I studied novel approaches for modeling urban tree architecture (e.g., urban tree biomass, woody and leaf surface area of urban trees, etc.) using terrestrial laser scanning tech- nology (TLS). In addition to urban forestry and remote sensing, I am also very interested in forest carbon science and ecology, so I completed a graduate certifi- cate in Forest Carbon Science, Policy, and Management and a graduate certificate in Spatial Ecology at MSU. Could you tell us about your Extension work? GA: One of the goals of my Extension program is to assist municipalities in Alabama and beyond to create efficient and accurate urban forest inventories, which are essential for evaluating current needs and devel- oping sustainable urban forest management plans. However, most municipalities have limited resources to address this task. With the use of TLS technology, we can scan trees across different spatial and tem- poral scales, enabling us to efficiently inventory large number of trees of different sizes and species. We process the TLS data in a lab to extract variables and metrics required for an urban forest inventory. We can also scan trees over different time periods to monitor tree growth and assess the effectiveness of tree planting projects. I'm partnering with cities on pending grants for urban forest carbon stock inventories, including >> ucfsociety.org 21 Dr. Georgios Arseniou teaching students about urban forest inventories (left) and risk assessment of urban trees (right) in Brooklyn, New York at an urban forestry summer program in July, 2022 hosted by Medgar Evers College.

• Cover