SCAC Small Research Top-up Grant 2021
Sustainable Caucasus congratulates two talented researchers Mariam Tsitsagi and Emil Jabrayilov with the reception of the SCAC Small Research Top-up Grant 2021.
On 19th September 2021, the grant contract has been officially signed by both sides.
Sustainable Caucasus in terms of the ongoing project Strengthening the Climate Adaptation Capacities in the South Caucasus (SCAC) announced the SCAC Small Research Top-up Grant 2021 program to support Georgian and Azerbaijani young researchers through encouraging the publication of applied, sound research outcomes in peer-reviewed international journals and support the evidence-based decision-making for sustainable development of the Caucasus region.
Together with German colleagues from RWTH Aachen University, Mariam and Emil selected Kolkheti National Park in Georgia and Shahdag National Park in Azerbaijan as research areas.
The study aims to use Landsat, Sentinel 2, and SPOT images and different machine learning algorithms to classify tree species and types and to assess the methodology with the best accuracy for each satellite data with asset inventory maps of the study areas. Furthermore, it will be evaluated whether the classification algorithms for tree types and tree species mapping and environmental variables (elevation, slope, aspect, etc.) differ in the case of different satellite data in the plains and/or highlands.
The longstanding cooperation between these talented researchers dates back several years, even to the participation in the 2016 Caucasus Summer School that is one of the main activities of Sustainable Caucasus focusing on strengthening case-study-oriented inter-transdisciplinary competencies and serving to regional networking of the early career researchers. It was this school that became the basis for the collaboration of these two researchers.
We wish fruitful collaboration to Mariam and Emil and success in their working process.
