GRAS at the USDA-NIFA Next Generation Land Use Change Methodology Workshop, Chicago

GRAS participated at the first stakeholder workshop of the USDA-NIFA Next-Generation Land Use Change Project and presented methodologies how remote sensing technologies support certification of biofuels and sustainable food, feed and chemicals for European markets and sustainable global supply chains. GRAS uses remote sensing methods to make the preparation, conduction and monitoring of certification processes more efficient, reliable effective.

Key remote sensing experts from federal agencies and important stakeholders groups shared state-of-the-art methodologies in the field of land use change (LUC) and remote sensing, recent advances in LUC data, analysis options and current research gaps in this field.

The joint initiative of the Northwestern University, Northwestern-Argonne Institute of Science and Engineering, the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, aims to develop a defensible, next-generation approach to quantifying and characterizing land use change using survey-based agricultural statistics, remote sensing data, and, high-resolution satellite imagery interpreted through machine learning techniques.

The first of three stakeholder workshops took place at the Energy Resources Centre of the University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC).

Find out more about the GRAS approach to support certification processes here.