Consortium > VUA

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

De Vereniging voor christelijk hoger onderwijs, wetenschappelijk onderzoek en patiëntenzorg

Organization short name: VUA
acronym:
web page: http://www.vu.nl

Description of the organization

Environmental research at the VU University Amsterdam is carried out at the Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences. It includes research on physical processes related to the impact of land use change on our climate, water resources, groundwater, geohydrology and ecological systems, geomorphology, biodiversity, carbon and nutrient cycling, as well as research on the social and economic issues and drivers leading to such land use change.

Expertise and experience of the organization

The Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences cover a wide range of disciplines and is excellently placed to approach environmental issues in an integrated manner. The Department of Hydrology and Geo-environmental Science of the Faculty is involved in several studies on carbon cycling and Global Change, in particular the interaction of land use (change) with hydrology and the major biogeochemical cycles, measurement and modelling of water, energy and CO2 exchange of the biosphere, links with hydrology and transport within the atmospheric boundary layer, and plays a strong role in (inter-)national carbon cycle studies and as a partner in many (inter-)national projects.

Selected reference projects

  • WATCH, WATer and global Change (EU FP 6),
  • CarboEurope-IP (EU FP6)
  • IMMEC, Infrastructure for Measurements of the European Carbon Cycle (EU FP 6),
  • CIRCE, Climate Change and Impact Research: the Mediterranean Environment (EU FP 6),
  • GREENCYCLES, Biogeochemistry and Climate Change Research and Training Network (Marie Curie training network, EU FP 6)

Key scientific / technical personnel

Dr. Richard de Jeu is an expert in terrestrial remote sensing. He will be responsible for the assessment of the long term data sets of vegetation and soil moisture and the integration of these remotely sensed products in carbon models
Prof. Dr. Han Dolman is an expert in ecohydrology. He is coordinator of the regional component of CarboEurope IP and was chairman of the CarboEurope cluster from 2001 to 2003 and is currently member of the executive board. He is involved as PI and coordinator in several EU projects, among which the ICOS infrastructure project, COCOS coordination action, (both FP7 under negotiation) IMMEC, WATCH and CIRCE projects. He was appointed chairman of the joint GCOS-GTOS Terrestrial Observation Panel for Climate (TOPC) in March 2007.
Dr. Thomas Holmes is an expert in passive microwave remote sensing over land. He will be responsible for the assessment of drought patterns, and the assessment of the correlation of the satellite products with tree ring data and eddy flux data.

Responsibilities in CARBO-Extreme

  • Long Term Carbon Measurements and Climate (WP3)

Selected recent relevant publications

De Jeu RAM, Owe M, Further validation of a new methodology for surface moisture and vegetation optical depth retrieval. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 24, 4559-4578, 2003. link to publisher

Dolman AJ et al., CERES, the CarboEurope Regional Experiment Strategy in Les Landes, South West France, May-June 2005. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 87, 1367–1379, 2006. link to publisher

Holmes TRH, Drusch M, Wigneron JP, De Jeu RAM. A global simulation of microwave emission: Error structures based on output from ECMWF’s operational Integrated Forecast System, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 46(3), 846 - 856, 2003. link to publisher

Owe M, De Jeu RAM, Holmes TRH, Multi-Sensor Historical Climatology of Satellite-Derived Global Land Surface Moisture, Journal of Geophysical Research, 113,F01002, 2008. link to publisher

Liu Y, De Jeu RAM, Van Dijk AIJM, Owe M, TRMM-TMI satellite observed soil moisture and vegetation density (1998–2005) show strong connection with El Nino in eastern Australia. Geophysical Research Letters, 34, 2007. link to publisher