Environmental data science, editorial solutions & scientific outreach

Effectively communicate your scientific data

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From data to publication, making past & present environmental data work for you

We are a team of environmental scientists dedicated to making sense of your environmental data and solving data driven environmental questions. With our combined expertise in remote sensing, ecological modelling, field surveys, tropical ecology and agroforestry, data science (ML/AI) & data rescue we can provide end-to-end research & development solutions. We help you effectively communicate research results, reaching both professional and general audiences.

services

our expertise

Data Science (ML/AI) & Research Software Engineering

We support your data analysis and synthesis, ranging from remote sensing data processing to machine learning.

Science Communication

Our editorial services quickly draft a manuscript or grant framework. We help you communicate your research, through formal and informal channels.

Experimental Design

We provide guidance in field survey planning, sampling protocol design and hardware & software development.

Portfolio

past & ongoing projects

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EU JRC Machine Learning data processing

BlueGreen Labs provided data management and machine learning software development expertise for the EU Joint Research Center (EU JRC) within the context of a landscape image segmentation project.

Applied research in smallholder farmer insurance

We provide protocol development and data processing expertise in support of this IFPRI led project to mitigate basic risk in smallholder farmer insurance.

High Resolution Vegetation Phenology and Productivity

We provide remote sensing validation expertise in support of product development.

Movement ecology of swifts

BlueGreen Labs contributes to the field of movement ecology through the research of Lyndon Kearsley with a long running project on monitoring the (movement) ecology of swifts.

Open hardware development

We provide open hardware development in support of (academic) research.

Open Source Software development

We provide a range of open source software packages in support of (academic) research.

PhenoCam near-surface remote sensing protocols, research and development

We detailed the protocol for the implementation of cameras within the PhenoCam US and Integrated Carbon Observation System network.

Eco-climatological data recovery and valorisation

BlueGreen Labs has expert knowledge on (citizen science based) data recovery. In particular, we led the COBECORE project to develop a multi-faceted database by making the archives of the Institut National pour l’Etude Agronomique du Congo belge digitally accessible.

Jungle Rhythms

Project Lead. This project strives to transcribe old observations of tree life cycle events (flowering, leaf shedding, fruit dispersion), in central African Rainforests, which are key to understanding a tree’s functioning.

Virtual forest

A scientific outreach project to engage citizens with observing and enjoying phenology in VR.

Challenges in banana cultivation

Research paper development on banana pests and diseases, and the sustainability of smallholder banana-producing farms

Enset - Ethiopia’s tree against hunger

Analytical and editorial support for research on food security crops.

Historical Aerial Photography Valorization

We used a combination of historical (1958) aerial photography and contemporary remote sensing data to map long-term changes in the extent and structure of the tropical forest surrounding Yangambi (DR Congo) in the central Congo Basin.

Jungle Weather

Central African climate data rescue using a computer vision, deep learning and crowd sourcing methods.

Publications

Most recent academic work

Scientific Data
We present a unique dataset of historical tropical tree phenology observations at two sites from different bioclimatic regions across the Congo Basin. These data may provide a reference baseline and key information on how tree species are responding to a changing climate.
PDF DOI

Frontiers in Remote Sensing
Accurate maps of canopy height (CH) and aboveground biomass (AGB) are needed for monitoring forests over large regions. Producing such data is particularly challenging over the complex, diverse and dense humid tropical forests of Africa where signal saturation observed from optical and radar satellites and complex responses in LiDAR data require advanced mapping techniques to capture high biomass and tall height values. Here, we trained a deep learning (U-Net) model to generate the first annual maps (2019–2022) of top CH at 10 m resolution over the African dense forest region, using Sentinel-1/-2 images trained on LiDAR-derived height data from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation mission (GEDI).
PDF DOI

Geoscientific Model Development
Here, we demonstrate and evaluate the Simulating Optimal FUNctioning (rsofun) R package, which provides a computationally efficient implementation of the P-model for site-scale simulations of ecosystem photosynthesis and the acclimation of photosynthetic traits, complemented with functionalities for Bayesian model-data integration and the estimation of model parameters and prediction uncertainty.
PDF DOI
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Recent Blog Posts

News, tutorials and more

3 min read software, R, package, API, remote sensing, data
This is a contribution of by Benjamin William Barrett who is a PhD student at the Health and Biomedical Informatics track of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Health Sciences Integrated PhD (HSIP) program. He was geocoding healthcare encounters within a singular, privacy-preserving, environment via containerization and Docker but struggled to get the {appeears} R package authentication working. I provided some guidance, mainly the use of a pre-created or spoofed keying, to avoid any user interaction in such a non-interactive setup.

4 min read data recovery, phenology, tropical forests
We present a unique dataset of historical tropical tree phenology observations at two sites from different bioclimatic regions across the Congo Basin. These data may provide a reference baseline and key information on how tree species are responding to a changing climate.

4 min read editorial, publications, funding, software, teaching
When starting a new year it always is good to look back at past achievements. Although the shifting geopolitical circumstances have soured the research climate, BlueGreen Labs’ output remained strong throughout 2025. In the spirit of the end-of-year lists we’ve created our own.

1 min read machine learning, food security, AI
It was a privilege to contribute as a panel member at the ECDPM event on “AI for Social Good and Africa’s Strategic Choices”! It was a critical conversation about balancing AI innovation with the governance and strategic choices necessary for Africa’s equitable development. Thank you to my fellow panelists for the rigorous exchange: Melody Musoni, PhD, Jane Munga, Amb - Prof Bitange Ndemo, and Maja Fjaestad. And special thanks to Chloe Teevan for moderating!

5 min read R, package, software, movement ecology
I’m happy to announce that the {skytrackr} package is on its way to CRAN. The {skytrackr} R package provides a convenient template fitting methodology and a Bayesian based optimization approach to estimate locations from light profiles. In my research together with Lyndon Kearsley we’ve used geolocation by light extensively to track swifts (an example light profile, as recorded during a year by a micro-logger on the back of a swift, is shown below).

1 min read PhenoCam, hardware, raspberrypi
After almost a decade of running the VirtualForest project intermittently I’ve decided to twilight the project. Storm damage a few years back took out the camera and I’ve not found the time or funding to rebuild the setup. The original domain name (virtualforest.io) will therefore expire and will not be affiliated with BlueGreen Labs. The website, for the time being, will be hosted on a subdomain of BlueGreen Labs (https://virtualforest.bluegreenlabs.org).
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Our Team

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Koen Hufkens, PhD

Founder, Researcher

Macro Ecology, Plant Physiology, Remote Sensing, Data Science & Rescue, Movement Ecology

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Elizabeth Kearsley, PhD.Eng.

Founder, Researcher

Tropical Ecology, Biodiversity, Agroforestry, Food Security, Gender Equality, Field Surveys

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Lyndon Kearsley

Research Associate

Bird migration, Bird behaviour, Pallid swift, GPS logging, Movement ecology

Contact

get in touch

  • For general inquiries and larger consulting tasks please use the email address below. Our time and expertise is valuable, to quickly pick our brains, problem-solving, validation and insights please book an appointment.
  • [email protected]
  • Melsele, Belgium
  • Weekdays 09:00 to 17:00, CET
  • Book an appointment