Research, teaching and other activities

Louvain-La-Neuve


Home Curriculum vitae Research, teaching and other activities Publications



Research areas

  • Forest and land use transitions, historical and contemporary
  • Policy options for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) and improving livelihoods and environmental services in the Tropics
  • International trade, global displacement of land use demand and its effects on forest cover changes
  • Socio-ecological systems, feedbacks from environmental degradation on behaviors, environmental cognitions

 


Research projects

MIDLAND

 ERC Starting Grant project on "Developing middle-range theories linking land use displacement, intensification and transitions".

 

 

Past research projects

BUSHTICK

Belgian Science Policy Stereo II program on changing farming, bush encroachment, and tick-borne disease risk in southern Norway.

REDD-Alert

EU FP 7 project on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation through Alternative Landuses in Rainforests of the Tropics. Finished in October 2012.

Be-REDDi

Belspo cluster project for integrating Belgian expertise on REDD and draw lessons relevant for policy at Begian and international levels. Finished in July 2012.


Research networks

Forêts, Nature et Société

Belgian F.R.S.-FNRS contact group on forests and society (started in 2014).

COST-TERRABITES

EU COST research network to assess and improve understanding of the terrestrial biosphere from an Earth system perspective.

ISSI Team

Team funded by International Space Science Institute on Integrating Earth Observation Data: the Description of Land Management Practices into Global Carbon Cycle Models (Team leader: H Dolman).


Conferences, seminars and other presentations (underlined: speaker)

Conferences and workshops

  • IAMO Forum 2012 – Land use in transitions, Halle (Saale), 20-22 June 2012. Presentations: Meyfroidt P, Kuemmerle T, Müller D, Schierhorn F, Prishchepov AV, Lambin EF “Potentially available cropland, constraints and tradeoffs in Eastern Europe and Former Soviet Union countries”; Meyfroidt P, Lambin EF “Strategies for ending deforestation in the globalization era”.
  • Planet Under Pressure Conference, London, 26-29 March 2012. Presentation: Meyfroidt P, Lambin EF “Prospects and options for an end to deforestation and global restoration of forests”.
  • COST ES0805 TERRABITES WG4 workshop – Land management in the Earth System, Potsdam, 21-23 March 2012.
  • Fifth Academia Belgica - Francqui Foundation Conference, The Global Land Reserve: Where is it? What are the constraints? A “hectare-by-hectare” approach, Rome, 26-28 October 2011. Presentation: Meyfroidt P “Land abandonment and potential cropland in Russia”.
  • 17th Annual International Sustainable Development Research Conference (ISDRC), Columbia University, New York, 8-10 May 2011 (not attended). Presentation : Kauppi P, Meyfroidt P, Lambin EF, Rudel TK “Forest Transition - When, Where and For How Long”.
  • 8th International Association of Landscape Ecology (IALE) World Congress, Beijing, 18-23 August 2011. Poster: Meyfroidt P, Robiglio V, Bolognesi M, Assoumou Mezui R “Analyzing the drivers of changes in landscape structure in the tropical forest margins of Cameroon.”
  • Fourth Belgian Geographers Days, Katholiek Universiteit Leuven, 22-23 october 2010. Presentation : Meyfroidt P, Rudel TK, Lambin EF “Forest transitions, trade and the global displacement of land use.”
  • Global Land Project Open Science Meeting 2010, Tempe (AZ), 17-19 october 2010. Presentations : Meyfroidt P, Rudel TK, Lambin EF “Forest transitions, trade and the global displacement of land use.”; Meyfroidt P "Local environmental perceptions and social-ecological feedbacks in the forest transition in Vietnam."
  • Atelier COMIFAC / Banque Mondiale / ONFI sur la revue à mi-parcours de l’étude régionale sur la modélisation des futures tendances de déforestation dans le Bassin du Congo et les émissions de gaz à effet de serre issues de cette déforestation, Douala, 16-18 november 2009. Presentation : Meyfroidt P “Causes et trajectoires de déforestation dans le Bassin du Congo.”
  • Developing Countries Facing Global Warming : A Post-Kyoto Assessment, Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences and the United Nations, 12-13 june 2009. Poster : Meyfroidt P, Lambin EF “The reforestation of Vietnam in the light of Kyoto.”
  • Third Belgian Geographers Days, Université Libre de Bruxelles and Vrije Universiteit Brussels, 24-25 october 2008. Presentation : Meyfroidt P, Lambin EF “Forest transition in Vietnam : evidence and causes.”
  • MaGrann conference 2008 : Land-Use Transitions in the Tropics, Columbia University and Rutgers University, 26-28 march 2008 (not attended). Presentation : Lambin EF, Meyfroidt P, Raquez P, “Conditions for a sustainable land use : evidence and the case of Vietnam.”
  • Multitemp 2007 conference, Fourth International Workshop on the Analysis of Multitemporal Remote Sensing Images, Leuven, 18-20 july 2007. Presentation : Meyfroidt P, Lambin EF, “Integration of heterogenous forest cover maps for forest cover change detection at national scale : the case of Vietnam.”
  • 6th Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Research Community (IGBP - IHDP - WCRP), Bonn, 9-13 october 2005. Poster : Meyfroidt P, Lambin EF, “Spatial Patterns of Forest Transition.”

Seminars and other invited presentations

  • LECA (Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine), Université Joseph Fourier & CNRS, workshop “les services écosystémiques et les changements d'utilisation des terres”, Grenoble, 10 January 2011. Presentation: Meyfroidt P, “Local environmental perceptions and feedbacks from environmental change in the forest transition in Vietnam”.
  • Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research (TECLIM) seminars, UCLouvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, 3 november 2010. Presentation: Meyfroidt P, Rudel TK, Lambin EF “Forest transitions, trade and the global displacement of land use.”
  • CNCD, Brussels, 15 june 2010. Presentation: Meyfroidt P, "Les forets tropicales: entre déforestation et préservation internationale", for the workshop "Le climat et les ressources naturelles: quels enjeux pour 2010?"
  • Center for Operational Research and Econometrics (CORE), UCLouvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, 19 november 2009. Presentation : Lambin EF, Meyfroidt P, “From deforestation to reforestation in the tropics : how green is REDD ?”
  • Department of Geography / Institut d’astronomie et de géophysique, UCLouvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, 9 march 2009. Presentation : Meyfroidt P, Lambin EF, “The forest transition in Vietnam and displacement of deforestation abroad.”
  • Forest, Nature and Society research group, UCLouvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, 23 october 2008. Presentation : Meyfroidt P “The forest transition in Vietnam : evidence, causes, environmental impacts and local environmental cognitions.”
  • Forestry Science Institute of Vietnam, Hanoi, 28 december 2007. Presentation : Meyfroidt P, “Pattern and causes of the reforestation in Vietnam.”
  • Forestry Science Institute of Vietnam, Hanoi, 28 december 2007. Presentation : Meyfroidt P, “The basics of GIS and their applications in social and economic forestry.”
  • Department of Geography, UCLouvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, 29 october 2007. Presentation : Meyfroidt P, “The forest transition in Vietnam : evidence, causes and environmental impacts.”
  • Department of Geography and Doctoral school in Geosciences, UCLouvain, Louvain-La-Neuve, 12 june 2006. Presentation : Meyfroidt P “Spatial Pattern and Processes of Forest cover changes in Vietnam.”
 

Fieldwork and visits abroad

  • Short field visits in Cameroon (November 2009; humid forest zone around Yaounde), Peru (October 2010; Pucallpa area, Peruvian Amazon)
  • December 2007 - February 2008 : fieldwork in Vietnam (Hanoi, Son La and Bac Kan provinces), survey of the role of the perception of forest scarcity and environmental degradation in the forest transition at local level, in collaboration with the Forestry Science Institute of Vietnam. Funded by belgian French Community research travel grants.
  • June 2007 : short research stay at UR 168 “Dynamiques socio-environnementales et gouvernance des ressources”, IRD, Montpellier.
  • May 2007 : short research stay at Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability, Newcastle University, Newcastle.
  • September 2005 : field mission in Vietnam (Hanoi), collection of statistical and cartographic data, in collaboration with the Forestry Science Institute of Vietnam.
 

Teaching and student supervision experience

LGEO1181 Géographie en Action
LGEO1241 Cartographie thématique et analyse des données spatiales
LGEO1321 Géographie rurale
 
PhD theses supervision
  • 2012 - present. Co-supervisor of Isaline Jadin, "Cross-border displacement of land-use through trade: Impacts on sustainability". UCLouvain.
  • 2012 - present. Co-supervisor of Derek Bruggeman, "Land zoning policies and forest cover changes in Cameroon and Bhutan"
  • 2010 - 2012. Member of the PhD committee of Penelope Lamarque, "An ecosystem services approach to analyzing socio-ecological systems in mountain grasslands: mechanisms and dynamics". Laoratoire d'Ecologie Alpine, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France (advisor: S. Lavorel)
Teaching experience, Jan 2004 – Dec 2009 at UCLouvain (Belgium) (150-200 hours in classroom per year):
  • Undergraduate level practical works : general geography, cartography, remote sensing, mineralogy, fieldwork (inc. exercise of field data collection for remote sensing analyzis).
  • Graduate level practical works : advanced remote sensing techniques, GIS, spatial modelling (inc. spatial statistical models, Cellular Automata and Multi-Agent Systems), geographical analyzis of developing countries.
  • Assistance in cartography, remote sensing and GIS for master thesis and postgraduate trainees.
Master thesis supervision
  • Furnémont C (2010) Etude de l'impact à long terme des herbicides utilisés durant la guierre du Vietnam sur les forêts sud-vietnamiennes. Mémoire de master en géographie, UCLouvain, in co-supervision with prof. E. Lambin.
  • Bruggeman D (2009) La transition forestière au Vietnam. Etude de cas au sein de deux villages de la commune de Xuan Lac, Bac Kan, nord du Vietnam. Mémoire de master en géographie, UCLouvain, in co-supervision with prof. E. Lambin.
  • Reman S (2009) La transition forestière au Vietnam : étude de cas dans les villages de Hoc et Pa Dong. Mémoire de master en géographie, UCLouvain, in co-supervision with prof. E. Lambin.
  • Le Thanh Nha Truc (2007) Analyse descriptive des facteurs influenant le niveau de vie dans le milieu rural au Vietnam entre 1994 et 2001. Mémoire de licence en géographie, UCLouvain, in co-supervision with prof. E. Lambin.
  • Della Faille de Leverghem A (2007) Etude de l’impact des zones protégées sur la déforestation au Vietnam. Mémoire de licence en géographie, UCLouvain, in co-supervision with prof. E. Lambin.
Other
  • Invited lecturer for the course “Population and environment in the South”, Bachelor program in Geography at Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, Namur, 3 December 2009.
  • Member of the jury of the urban design studio “Water Urbanism in Hanoi : Red River + Lakes”, Master in Human Settlements, Master in Urban and Strategic Planning and European Master in Urbanism, Katholiek Universiteit Leuven, spring 2009.
  • Organization and teaching of a course on GIS and their applications in social and economic forestry, Forestry Science Institute of Vietnam, 28 December 2007.
  • Co-organization and teaching of the high resolution remote sensing course from the Data Management, GIS and Remote Sensing Workshop of EDEN project (“Emerging Diseases in a Changing European Environment”), UCLouvain, 29 March 2005 – 2 April 2005.
  • Supervision of a research exercise for graduate students in sociology : questionnaire survey about residential mobility and uses and representations of residential space, UCLouvain, Sept–Dec 2003.
 

Services and other activities

At UCLouvain :
  • 2008–present. Member of the interdisciplinary research group Forêt, Nature et Société at UCLouvain
  • 2007–2009. Informant about studies in sciences and geography for secondary school students at various meetings and fairs.
  • 2004–2010. Annual activity on remote sensing for primary school children.
  • 2004–2007. Representative of the temporary scientific staff at the "Conseil de la Faculté des Sciences".
  • 2005. Activity on Kyoto protocol and carbon trade for primary school children.
Other :
  • 2014–present. Secretary of the interdisciplinary and inter-university F.R.S.-FNRS contact group Forêt, Nature et Société.
  • Reviewer for Agricultural Systems; Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment; Biotropica; Conservation Letters; Ecological Economics; Ecology & Society; Environment, Development & Sustainability; Environmental Conservation; Environmental Management; Environmental Modelling and Software; Environmental Monitoring and Assessment; Geomatique; Global Environmental Change; Human Ecology; International Forestry Review; Journal of Arid Environments; Journal of Land Use Science; Journal of Sustainable Watershed Science and Management; Land Degradation and Development; Land Use Policy; Regional Environmental Change; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; Society & Natural Resources; Sustainability, and edited books.
  • Member of the scientific committee of the workshop "Forêts et foresterie: mutations et décloisonnements", for the 2011 international annual meeting of the Association de Science Régionale De Langue Française (ASDRLF), coordinated by C. Farcy (UCLouvain) and Y. Poss (AgroParisTech).
  • Participation at “Le réel métamorphosé”, exposition of scientific photographs. Louvain-La-Neuve, forum des halles, 17 september – 12 october 2009.

 

[1]     Study of the atmosphere-ocean-biosphere system intended for climate studies (credit to researchers, FNRS, budget : ~20,000 EUR, 1990-1991, in collaboration with G. Schayes and J.-P. van Ypersele).

[2]     "Crédit superordinateur FNRS" (20 hours of CPU time on the ULB-VUB CRAY-XMP, 1990–1991, in collaboration with J.-P. van Ypersele).

[3]     Variability of the glacial and interglacial climates and abrupt climatic changes (contract ENV4-CT95-0131, Climate and Environment Programme, European Commission, budget : ~171,000 EUR, 1996–1997).

[4]     Modelling the climate and its evolution at the global scale - CLIMOD (Contract CG/DD/09A, First Scientific Support Plan for a Sustainable Development Policy, Belgian Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs, Prime Minister’s Services, budget : ~377,000 EUR, 1996–2001). Within this project, I have coordinated a network of 4 Belgian research teams (total budget : ~1,244,000 EUR).

[5]     Influence of the air–sea–ice interactions in the polar regions on the global climate : A study with a new coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model (contract ERBFMBICT972359, Programme for Training and Mobility of Researchers, European Commission, budget : ~178,000 EUR, 1998–2000).

[6]     Climate variability : How unusual is the Holocene? (contract ENV4-CT97-0643, Climate and Environment Programme, European Commission, budget : ~192,000 EUR, 1998–2000).

[7]     Modelling the climate and its evolution at the global and regional scales (Special Project SPBECL, European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts, Reading, CPU time on the FUJITSU, 1998–2003, in collaboration with J.-P. van Ypersele).

[8]     "Financement des Fonds Spéciaux de Recherche (FSR) de l’UCL destiné à l’accueil d’un chercheur postdoctoral étranger à  ASTR" (1999).

[9]     Optimisation of a model of the coupled ocean–sea-ice system (Group Mission MERCATOR, CERFACS–CNES–CNRS/INSU–IFREMER–IRD–Météo-France–SHOM, budget : ~7000 EUR, 2000–2001).

[10]  Modelling the evolution of climate and sea level over the third millennium - MILMO (contract EV/10/9A, Second Scientific Support Plan for a Sustainable Development Policy, Belgian Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs, Prime Minister’s Services, budget : ~327,000 EUR, 2000–2005). Within this project, I have coordinated a network of 3 Belgian research teams (total budget : ~972,000 EUR).

[11]   Modelling the climate with LMDZ : Application to regional studies (International Scientific Cooperation Programme, French National Centre for Scientific Research and Belgian FNRS, budget : ~31,000 EUR, 2000–2003, in collaboration with H. Le Treut).

[12]  Programme for integrated Earth system modelling - PRISM : An infrastructure project for climate research in Europe (contract EVR1-CT-2001-40012, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme, European Commission, budget : ~47,000 EUR, 2001–2004).

[13]  Sea ice : Observations and high-resolution modelling (Group Mission MERCATOR, CERFACS–CNES–CNRS/INSU–IFREMER–IRD–Météo-France–SHOM, budget : ~12,000 EUR, 2001–2003).

[14]  Contribution of the assimilation of satellite data to sea-ice modelling (FSR, budget : ~45,000 EUR, 2002–2004, in collaboration with E. Deleersnijder).

[15]  Models and observations to test climate feedbacks - MOTIF (Fifth Framework Programme, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development Programme, European Commission, budget : ~104,000 EUR, 2003–2005).

[16]  Climate Change and Cryosphere - C3 (ACI-FNS French National Programme on Natural Risk and Climate Change, budget : ~24,000 EUR, 2003–2005, in collaboration with H. Goosse and J.-P. van Ypersele).

[17]  Ensemble-based predictions of climate changes and their impacts - ENSEMBLES (contract 505539, Sixth Framework Programme, Global Change and Ecosystems Programme, European Commission, budget : ~75,000 EUR, 2004–2009).

[18]  A second-generation model of the ocean system - SLIM (Concerted Research Actions, French Community of Belgium, budget : ~725,000 EUR, 2004–2009, in collaboration with E. Deleersnjider, V. Legat and J.-F. Remacle).

[19]  Contributing as Lead Author to Chapter 8 of the IPCC Working Group 1 Fourth Assessment Report (contract IO/10/004, Belgian Science Policy Office, budget : ~35,000 EUR, 2004–2007).

[20]  Assessment of modelling uncertainties in long-term climate and sea level change projections - ASTER : Phase 1 (contract SD/CS/01A, Programme on Science for a Sustainable Development, Belgian Science Policy Office, budget : ~200,000 EUR, 2006–2008). Within this project, I have coordinated a network of 3 Belgian research teams (total budget : ~534,000 EUR).

[21]  "Financement des FSR de l’UCL destiné à l’accueil d’un chercheur postdoctoral étranger à  ASTR" (2006, in collaboration with A. Berger et H. Goosse).

[22]  Sea-ice biogeochemistry in polar oceans : Implications on fluxes of climatically significant gases and for climate changes of natural or anthropogenic origin - A contribution to the International Polar Year (Fund for Collective Fundamental Research, FNRS, budget : ~5000 EUR, 2007-2009, in collaboration with A. Borges, L. Chou, C. Lancelot and J.-L. Tison).

[23]  Network for ice sheet and climate evolution - NICE (contract MRTN-CT-2006-036127, Human Resources and Mobility Activity, Marie Curie Actions, Marie Curie Research Training Networks, European Commission, budget : ~282,000 EUR, 2007–2010).

[24]  "Analyse comparée des forçages externes et des rétroactions internes au système climatique lors de trois périodes chaudes observées dans l’Arctique au cours des 10.000 dernières années" (Fund for Collective Fundamental Research, FNRS, budget : ~10,000 EUR, 2008, in collaboration with M. Crucifix and H. Goosse).

[25]  Assessment of modelling uncertainties in long-term climate and sea level change projections - ASTER : Phase 2 (contract SD/CS/01B, Programme on Science for a Sustainable Development, Belgian Science Policy Office, budget : ~263,000 EUR, 2008–2010). Within this project, I have coordinated a network of 3 Belgian research teams (total budget : ~620,000 EUR).

[26]  "Financement des FSR de l’UCL destiné à l’accueil d’un chercheur postdoctoral étranger à  ASTR" (2009, in collaboration with E. Lambin).

[27]  Comprehensive modelling of the Earth system for better climate prediction and projection - COMBINE (grant agreement 226520, Seventh Framework Programme, Theme 6 : Environment, European Commission, budget : ~310,000 EUR, 2009-2013).

[28]  Taking up the challenges of multi-scale marine modelling (Concerted Research Actions, French Community of Belgium, budget : ~500,000 EUR, 2010–2015, in collaboration with E. Deleersnjider, E. Hanert, V. Legat, J.-F. Remacle and S. Soares Frazao).

Total budget : ~3,940,000 EUR.

Earth & Climate

Sciences and Technology

ELIC

Mercator
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