Group Members

Dr. Josep E. Pardo Pascual
Professor – Director CGAT
Dr. Josep E. Pardo-Pascual teaches environmental dynamics, and environmental characterization through the application of cartographic techniques: Geomorphology, LiDAR data management, Environmental application of Digital Terrain Models, Littoral Processes and Human action. Since 1999 he has been head of the Geo-environmental Cartography and Remote Sensing (CGAT) research group.
His research is focused on coastal geomorphology, especially beach changes, beach-dune interactions and lagoon morphology, human action, and use of new cartographic tools and data (especially satellite imagery) to improve knowledge about coastal changes. However, he also has been working on Quaternary evolution of coastal landscapes.
Email: jepardo @ cgf.upv.es
Phone: +34 963877000 (75537)
Background
M.Sc Geography – Universitat de València
PhD Physical Geography – Universitat de València
Research Interests
- Changes in fluvial landscapes
- Relationship between karst and tectonics processes
- Automated generalization cartography processes
- Remote sensing applications on urban areas
Ongoing Research
- Coastline changes from remote sensing
- 3D beach changes using LiDAR and photogrammetry
Publications
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Dr. Luis A. Ruiz
Professor – Co-director CGAT
Dr. Luis A. Ruiz teaches remote sensing and digital image processing at UPV (Dept. Cartographic Engineering, Geodesy and Photogrammetry), he is a regular visiting lecturer at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, and has been a visiting researcher at LARSE (OSU) and RSGAL (UW) labs. Since 2013 he is editor in chief of the Spanish Journal of Remote Sensing.
His research focuses on LULC classification and change detection using object-oriented image analysis; LiDAR methods and applications in forest structure, attribute estimation and mapping; and the relation of LULC fragmentation metrics and socio-economic variables for the characterization of urban areas. He is currently involved in projects FIRMACARTO and HERITAG.
Email: laruiz @ cgf.upv.es
Phone: +34 963877000 (75536)
Background
BSc & M.Sc Agricultural Engineering – Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
PhD Agricultural Engineering – Universitat Politècnica de València
Research Interests
- Land use/land cover change analysis
- Object-based feature extraction and classification
- Remote sensing and LiDAR in forestry and agriculture
- Landscape fragmentation metrics
Ongoing Research
- Analysis and mapping of forest structure and fuel variables from discrete and full-waveform LiDAR data
- Exploring multitemporal urban land use fragmentation metrics and its relationship with socio-economic variables
- Aplication of object-based classification methods for LULC geodatabase updating
Publications
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Dr. Ángel Balaguer Besser
Assoc. Professor
Dr. Angel Balaguer-Beser teaches courses in the degree in Geomatic and Surveying Engineering and in the Master in Geomatic and Geoinformation at Polytechnic University of Valencia (Dept. of applied mathematics). His research focuses on the design of new non-linear high-order interpolation methods for the numerical simulation of bed-load sediment transport process due to the movement of a fluid over a sediment layer.
He also investigates in subpixel edge detection problems of image interpolation. He works in the definition of a new set of texture semivariogram features for object-oriented image classification. He is also participating in the research related to the computing of the shoreline position deduced from Landsat imagery.
He is currently involved in projects FIRMACARTO and transport of sediments
Email: abalague @ mat.upv.es
Phone: +34 963877000 (86651)
Background
BSc & M.Sc Mathematics sciences, Universitat de Valencia.
PhD – Mathematics sciences, Universitat Jaume I.
Research Interests
- Numerical simulation of sediment transport processes
- High-order interpolation methods for image analysis
- Modelling of beach and fluvial systems
- Regression methods to predict forest structure variables
Ongoing Research
- Numerical-experimental modelling of local scouring downstream of protected bridges in alluvial river beds
- Analysis of the shoreline position extracted from Landsat imagery
- Statistical methods for the estimation of forest structure variables
- Description of a new set of object-based temporal geostatistical features for land-user change detection
Publications
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Dr. Alfonso Fernández Sarría
Assoc. Professor
Dr. Alfonso Fernández Sarría teaches Remote Sensing and Geomorphology at UPV (Dept. Cartographic Engineering, Geodesy and Photogrammetry). His research is focused on the extraction of forest variables from airborne LiDAR data for forest inventory, discrimination and quantification of biomass, etc.
In the agricultural sector, he is working on potential applications of ALS and TLS data to the field of precision agriculture and their combination with data extracted from automatized digital photogrammetry. Modeling of sand dunes and coastal areas from 3D and multispectral data and their morphological changes is another line of work.
He is currently involved in projects FIRMACARTO and RESETOCOAST
Email: afernan @ cgf.upv.es
Phone: +34 963877000 (75573)
Background
Technical Surveying Engineer – Universitat Politècnica de València.
Engineer in Geodesy and Cartography – Universitat Politècnica de València.
PhD Engineer in Geodesy, Cartography and Geographical Information Systems – Universitat Politècnica de València.
Research Interests
- Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) applied to forestry and agriculture
- Multispectral remote sensing for coastal areas
- Three-dimensional modeling using automated photogrammetry and Structure from Motion (SfM)
- Remote sensing and LiDAR in forestry and agriculture
Ongoing Research
- Analysis and mapping of forest structure and fuel variables from Terrestrial Laser Scanner data
- Multispectral remote sensing in coastal areas to obtain bathymetry
- Analysis of the geometry of fruit trees (olives and almonds) using TLS and digital photogrammetry equipment
Publications
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Dr. Jesús Manuel Palomar Vázquez
Assoc. Professor
Dr. Jesús Palomar Vázquez teaches GIS, Programming (especially Python) and 3D visualization at UPV (Dept. Cartographic Engineering, Geodesy and Photogrammetry). Currently, his main research line is focused on automated extraction and analysis of shorelines from LANDSAT and SENTINEL-2 imagery.
He has also worked in automatic cartographic representation and generalization, mobile cartography and 3D data acquisition, visualization and modelling for documentation heritage purposes.
He is currently involved in RESETOCOAST project
Email: jpalomav @ upvnet.upv.es
Phone: +34 963877000 (75563)
Background
Technical Surveying Engineer – Universitat Politècnica de València.
Engineer in Geodesy and Cartography – Universitat Politècnica de València.
PhD Engineer in Geodesy, Cartography and Geographical Information Systems – Universitat Politècnica de València.
Research Interests
- Extraction of shorelines from Image processing
- GIS programming
- Cartographic generalization
- Acquisition and dissemination of 3D heritage models through web frameworks
Ongoing Research
- Methods to extract shorelines from LANDSAT and SENTINEL-2 imagery (RESETOCOAST national project)
- Combination of 2D and 3D information for heritage documentation improvement
Publications
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Dr. Jorge Recio Recio
Assoc. Professor
Dr. Jorge A. Recio teaches remote sensing, digital image processing and GIS at UPV (Dept. Cartographic Engineering, Geodesy and Photogrammetry), and has been a visiting researcher at Institut für Photogrammetrie und GeoInformation (Leibniz Universität Hannover).
His research focuses on LULC classification and change detection using object-oriented image analysis; update of spatial database, LiDAR methods and applications in forest structure, attribute estimation and mapping.
He is currently involved in project FIRMACARTO.
Email: jrecio @ cgf.upv.es
Phone: +34 963877000 (79553)
Background
B.Sc. Surveying Engineering – Universitat Politècnica de València
M.Sc. Geodetic & Cartographical Engineering– Universitat Politècnica de València
Ph.D. in Geodesy, Cartography and GIS.– Universitat Politècnica de València
Research Interests
- Land use/land cover change analysis
- Object-based image analysis
- Update of spatial databases
- Remote sensing and LiDAR in forestry and agriculture
Ongoing Research
- Application of object-based classification methods for LULC geodatabase updating
- Design of multitemporal descriptive features to detect environmental changes
- Analysis and mapping of forest structure and fuel variables from discrete and full-waveform LiDAR data
Publications
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Dr. Javier Estornell Cremades
Assoc. Professor
Dr. Javier Estornell teaches remote sensing and GIS in the Universitat Politècnica de València (Campus of Gandia) and belongs to the GeoEnvironmental Cartography and Remote Sensing group (CGAT). Since 2014, he is assistant editor of the Spanish Journal of Remote Sensing.
His research interests focus on the application of LiDAR data and satellite images in agriculture, forestry and coast studies. He is currently involved in research projects FIRMACARTO and ResetoCoast.
Email: jaescre @ cgf.upv.es
Phone: +34 962849324
Background
BS degree in Geodesy and Cartography Engineering – Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain)
PhD in Geodesy, Cartography, and Geographical Information Systems – Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain)
Research Interests
- Remote sensing and LiDAR in forestry, agriculture and coast studies
- Land use/land cover change analysis
- Terrestrial Laser Scanner in agriculture and forestry
Ongoing Research
- Estimation of direct and indirect parameters of fruit trees using terrestrial and airborne LiDAR data
- Analysis and mapping of dunes from airborne LiDAR data
- Study of forest structure variables using airborne LiDAR data
Publications
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Dr. Jaime Almonacid Caballer
Post doc researcher – CGAT
Dr. Jaime Almonacid-Caballer has developed the main part of his career in the Dept. Cartographic Engineering, Geodesy and Photogrammetry. Where he obtained the PhD in December of 2014. His Bachelor and PhD Thesis are related to coastal management, concretely on the subpixel automated coastline extraction from Landsat imagery, which includes automated georreferenciation, evaluation and analysis derived from those lines.
Other works have been related with the development of a low cost aerial photogrammetric tools, the mathematical co-development of terrestrial photogrammetric constraints oriented to coastal management.
He worked with point clouds derived both from Photogrammetric techniques and LiDAR to obtain derived products needed for the coastal managements (DTMs, DSMs etc). He also co-worked in the development of LiDAR tools in ENVI/IDL.
During 2016 he worked as Quality Control manager in the LiDAR group of Aerodata International Surveys placed in Utrecht (The netherlands). After getting into the LiDAR processing workflow (mainly developed with RiEGL systems/software and TerraScan) he was responsible of the Quality of the delivered data and on fixing any complaint from older deliveries. He was in charge on finding simpler and faster ways to improve the workflow. As a matter of research, he was in charge of spreading the point of view to detect automatically any geometric problem (mainly working with Tie Lines and vertical surface mismatches) trying always to work with freeware and simple but usable tools.
Nowadays he is developing he is part of the CGAT team in charge of spreading the sub-pixel coastline detection he developed in his PhD to be useful for new SENTINEL platform and updating the algorithms to reach new precision levels.
Email: jaime.almonacid.caballer @ gmail.com
Background
Technical Engineering in Surveying – Universitat Politècnica de València
Engineering in Cartography and Geodesy – Universitat Politècnica de València
PhD Cartography – Universitat Politècnica de València
Research Interests
- Subpixel/hiper-resolution processes
- Coastal management tools
- 3D point cloud management
- Spreading of the remote sensing knowledge to non-expert environments
- Bathymetry via Landsat
Ongoing Research
- Big data of coast lines management
- Multitemporal coastlines analysis
Publications
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Elena Sánchez García
PhD Student in Mathematics
Elena Sánchez García is a PhD student in Mathematics at UPV with a predoctoral contract (FPU13/05877) granted by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. She is doing her PhD thesis at CGAT group and it is based on the determination of morphological response patterns in beaches after the impact of coastal storms using remote sensing and photogrammetry techniques.
She has done some research stays to collaborate in the Department of Geology at the Faculty of Sciences (Lisbon University) and at the Environmental Hydraulics Institute “IH Cantabria” in Santander, Spain. She is also involved in research projects such as RESETOCOAST and AICO/2015/098.
Currently she is combining her research with teaching hours in the Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering and in Public Works Engineering at UPV.
Email: elena.sanchez.upv @ gmail.com
Phone: +34 963877160 (75576)
Background
Technical Surveying Engineer (Universitat Politècnica de València)
Engineer in Geodesy and Cartography (Universitat Politècnica de València)
Research Interests
- Coastal video monitoring
- Development of techniques for shoreline detection and other coastal indicators
- Coastal forecast numerical models
Ongoing Research
- Monitoring of intertidal topography and coastal evolution derived from video imagery
Publications
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Pablo Crespo Peremarch
PhD Student in Geomatics Engineering
Pablo Crespo Peremarch works in the CGAT as technical researcher since November 2014. He is carrying out his PhD thesis at the UPV. His research is focused on characterisation of forest structure by integrated analysis of methods based on LiDAR full-waveform and imagery.
He is currently involved in project FIRMACARTO
Email: pabcrepe @ upv.es
Phone: +34 963877160 (75576)
Background
Technical Surveying Engineer – Universitat Politècnica de València
Engineer in Geodesy and Cartography – Universitat Politècnica de València
Master’s Degree in Software Engineering, Formal Methods and Information Systems – Universitat Politècnica de València
Research Interests
- Remote sensing and LiDAR in forestry
- Development of software for LiDAR full-waveform preprocessing
- Generation of models to estimate forest structure and canopy fuel variables
- Object-based feature extraction and fuel strata classification
Ongoing Research
- Analysis and mapping of forest structure and canopy fuel variables from full-waveform LiDAR data
Publications
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Marta Sapena Moll
PhD Student in Geomatics Engineering
Marta Sapena works in the CGAT as a technical researcher since 2014. She is currently pursuing her doctoral thesis at the UPV, based on the relation of land use fragmentation indicators and socio-economic variables from a spatiotemporal perspective.
Her research is focused on the characterization of urban areas, through the monitorization and modelling of urban dynamic studies.
She is also involved in forest structure studies, such as forest fragmentation and objetc-oriented classification with low density LiDAR and high resolution imagery to categorize forests in fuel strata.
Email: marsamol @ upv.es
Phone: +34 963877160 (75576)
Background
Technical Surveying Engineer (Universitat Politècnica de València)
Engineer in Geodesy and Cartography (Universitat Politècnica de València)
Research Interests
- Landscape fragmentation metrics
- Urban dynamics
- Socio-economic variables
Ongoing Research
- Exploring multitemporal urban land use fragmentation metrics and its relationship with socio-economic variables
- Analysis and mapping of forest structure and fuel variables
Publications
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Carlos Cabezas Rabadán
PhD Student in Geomatics Engineering
Carlos Cabezas is a PhD student in Geomatics Engineering at UPV with a predoctoral contract granted by the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, since September 2016.
He is developing his PhD thesis at CGAT group, analyzing the processes of variation of the coastline in Mediterranean areas through the use of satellite images, and the socioeconomic and environmental repercussions that these changes have.
He is involved in RESETOCOAST research project.
Email: carcara4 @ upv.es
Phone: +34 963877160 (75576)
Background
Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Sciences (Universitat Politècnica de València)
Master’s Degree in in Assessment and Environmental Monitoring of Marine and Coastal Ecosystems (Universitat Politècnica de València)
Master’s Degree in Environmental and Territorial Management Techniques (Universitat de València)
Research Interests
- Shoreline changes
- Integrated coastal zone management
- Environmental impact
- Sustainable beach management
Ongoing Research
- Analysis of changes in coastline from remote sensing, and its environmental and socioeconomic consequences
Publications
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Jesús Torralba Pérez
PhD Student in Geomatics Engineering
Jesús Torralba is a PhD student in Geomatics Engineering at UPV. His research is focused on characterisation of forest structure and forest fuel by integrated analysis of methods based on Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) and imagery.
He is involved in FIRMACARTO research project.
Email: jetorpe @ upv.es
Phone: +34 963877160 (75576)
Background
Bachelor of Engineering in Forestry and Natural Environment (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, España)
Diploma in Geomatics and Satellite Technology (Universidad Mayor, Chile)
Master of Science in Remote Sensing (Universidad Mayor, Chile)
Research Interests
- Remote sensing in forestry and natural environment
- Generation of models to estimate forest structure and fuel variables
- Analysis and mapping of forest dynamics
- Land cover change analysis
Ongoing Research
- Improvement of the characterization of forest structure in Mediterranean forest through the incorporation and analysis of Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS).
Others
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Juan Pedro Carbonell Rivera
PhD Student in Geomatics Engineering
Juan Pedro Carbonell Rivera is a is a PhD student in Geomatics Engineering at UPV with a predoctoral contract granted by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, since September 2018. His research is focused on characterisation of forest structure by integrated analysis of methods based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) derived imagery.
He is currently involved in project FIRMACARTO.
Email: juacarri @ upv.es
Phone: +34 963877160 (75576)
Background
Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering in Geomatics and Topography (Universitat Politècnica de València)
Master’s Degree in Geomatics Engineering and Geoinformation (Universitat Politècnica de València)
International Master’s Degree in Geomatics (Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences)
Research Interests
- Forest structure characterization from remote sensing imagery.
- Generation of models to estimate fuel mass and forest structure.
- Multi-temporal analysis and quantification of forest variables.
- Software development for forest inventory estimation.
- Modelling forest carbon cycle.
Ongoing Research
- Characterization of the forest structure in Mediterranean forests through the study and analysis of high resolution image processing methodologies at different scales.
- Use and analysis of geomatics techniques applied for the generation of carbon estimation models.
Others
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Collaborators

Dr. Txomin Hermosilla
Integrated Remote Sensing Studio, Department of Forest Resources Management, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Txomin Hermosilla worked in the CGAT between 2005 and 2012, as one of the original research members of the group. In 2011 he defended his PhD thesis entitled “Automatic building detection and land-use classification in urban environments with high spatial resolution imagery and LiDAR data”.
Within the CGAT his work was focused on integrating multiple-source remote-sensing data for automatic land-use/land-cover mapping agricultural, urban, and forest scenarios. Since 2012 Txomin works as post-doctoral research fellow in the Integrated Remote Sensing Studio of the University of British Columbia. His current project develops big-data methods for image compositing and time-series analyses of massive Landsat data for monitoring land cover and land-cover changes in Canada’s boreal forest.
Email: txominhermos @ gmail.com
Background
Technical Surveying Engineer (Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea)
Engineer in Geodesy and Cartography (Universitat Politècnica de València)
MSc in Geographical Information Management (Cranfield University)
PhD in Geodesy, Cartography and Geographical Information Systems (Universitat Politècnica de València)
Research Interests
- Time series analysis
- Land cover change analysis
- Big data computing
Ongoing Research
- National Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring System ( NTEMS )
Publications
See Publications on Mendeley

Dr. Jose Luis Gil
Quality Control of Seismic Navigation data and geodesy consultancy in Geograf AS, Norway
Jose Luis Gil started his career as part of the CGAT research group in the Dept. Cartographic Engineering, Geodesy and Photogrammetry. He has been awarded national and international awards for both Bachelor and Engineering (MSc) theses.
His research work within the group has been focused on forestry LiDAR studies and LU/LC object-based change detection using image processing and machine learning methods. His PhD was related to multitemporal object-based feature extraction using very high resolution images for LU/LC change detection.
He is currently working in the oil business performing geospatial Quality Control of Seismic Navigation data and geodesy consultancy in Geograf AS, Norway.
Email: jogiye @ gmail.com
Background
Technical Engineering in Surveying – Universitat Politècnica de València
Engineering in Cartography and Geodesy – Universitat Politècnica de València
PhD Student in Geographical Engineering – Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Research Interests
- Object-based change detection
- Image processing
- Machine learning
- Feature extraction
- LiDAR
Ongoing Research
- LU/LC object-based change detection
- Multitemporal feature extraction
Publications
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Visiting Scholars
- Diego Pacheco (Universidad del Azuay, Ecuador) [2019]
- Idania Briceño de Urbaneja (Universidad Mayor, Chile) [2018-2019]
- Soledad Represa (Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina) [2017-2018/2018-2019]
- Waldo Pérez Martínez (Universidad Mayor, Chile) [2017-2018]
- David Roig Cervera (Centre for Marine and Renewable Energy, Cork, Ireland) [2015-2016]
- Tsolmon Renchin (National University of Mongolia) [2014-2015]
- Jorge Patiño (Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia) [2013]
- Natasha Piccone (Universidad Nacional del Sur, Tandil, Argentina) [2013]
- Mauro Novara (Universidad Nacional de La Patagonia, Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina) [2011]
- Gerson Colmenárez (Universidad Centro Occidental Lisandro Alvarado, Barquisimeto, Venezuela) [2009-2013]