An online meeting between OBSGESSION’s stakeholders and pilots 3 and 4 leaders took place on 22nd April, presenting the preliminary results and collecting feedback. 

During the meeting, two project members, Rachid Oucheikh from Lund University and Andjin Siegenthaler from UT-ITC, presented the objectives and approaches of reaching set goals, and updates within OBSGESSION’s pilots 3 and 4. Addressing similar topics, pilot 3 studies the forecasting ecosystem productivity under disturbances and climate change, while pilot 4 supports temperate and boreal forest protection and restoration. 

Pilot 3 highlighted two connected objectives. Presented by Rachid Oucheikh, the discussion on pilot 3, Monitoring and forecasting forest ecosystem productivity and health under climate change and disturbances, focused the participants' attention towards the main objectives within the pilot. The first objective is to strengthen disturbance-aware forest modelling by adapting LPJ-GUESS to represent key disturbance processes, including storm damage and bark beetle impacts. This helps interpret forest change in relation to climate stress, forest structure and management, rather than only detecting where change has occurred. 

The second objective is to make LPJ-GUESS outputs more useful at decision-relevant spatial scales. Pilot 3 is developing machine-learning downscaling methods that combine coarse process-based model outputs with Earth Observation data to generate finer-resolution maps of forest function and structure. For stakeholders, the added value lies in moving from descriptive maps of forest change towards more interpretable products that can help explain why change is happening and where management or restoration actions may be most relevant.

Andjin Siegenthaler contributed to the discussion by presenting the key outputs of OBSGESSION’s pilot 4. These included base maps developed through combined environmental DNA and remote sensing methods, which can support the assessment and understanding of major environmental impacts and their correlations with various soil bacterial indices.

The meeting was a two-way discussion, where both the stakeholders and pilot members raised questions regarding OBGSESSION’s updates and outputs. The scale of usability of pilot 4’s maps was part of the joint discussion, while project members gathered feedback and suggestions for ways of benefiting the stakeholders' feedback even better.