Fluorescence lidar remote sensing of vegetation: research advances in Europe

One of the most remarkable problems of the European environment is forest decline, mainly due to atmospheric pollution (including acid rains) and other pollution factors, such as industrial waste. During the last decade a large effort has been devoted to the improvement of fluorescence lidar techniques applied to the vegetation monitoring with the aim of an early detection of stresses and damages. Researches in this field have been carried out in different countries, like France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and Sweden. The most remarkable effort has been done within the EUREKA-LASFLEUR Project (EU380): this is involving laboratories and industries of four European Countries in the development of an airborne fluorescence lidar specially devoted to an operative vegetation monitoring.