We extend a warm welcome to Mike Kouakou, our new addition to the research team at the University of Würzburg and NetCDA. Since his arrival at the end of March, Mike has been immersed in his doctoral studies on the topic “Modeling the Above-Ground Carbon Stock for West African Countries Utilizing Remote Sensing-Based High-Resolution Data” until July.
Mike holds a master’s degree in Systematics, Physiology, and Plant Biodiversity from Félix Houphouët-Boigny University (UFHB) (Côte d’Ivoire). Since 2021, he has been enrolled in the Doctoral Research Program at the West Africa Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) at Kwame Nkrumah University of Sciences and Technology in Kumasi (Ghana).
Mike is deeply engaged in above-ground carbon modeling, ecological offsetting, and biodiversity conservation, aiming to refine carbon estimation methodologies, explore ecological compensation strategies, and utilize remote sensing technologies for innovative carbon dynamics modeling. His doctoral studies address deforestation and climate change in West Africa, particularly in Côte d’Ivoire. Leveraging high-resolution satellite imagery, the research aims to develop accurate methods for estimating carbon stock in the region’s tropical forests and characterize vegetation cover dynamics from 1992 to 2022.