Yan Cheng

Yan Cheng public CV Link opens in a new tab

Phone+4535322350
Emailyachign.kudk

Øster Voldgade 10
1350 København K

Short presentation

Postdoctoral researcher in environmental science and computer science. Just defended my PhD project funded by Villum Foundation (DRYTIP project) and the University of Copenhagen (Data+ Pool) in May 2025. I am passionate about using deep learning to decode earth observations (e.g., satellite images) and to understand terrestrial ecosystems in a changing climate. Application-wise, I am interested in physical climate risk assessment and nature-based solutions to climate change.

Education/Academic qualification

AI for EO, PhD, University of Copenhagen

1 Sept 2021 → 28 Feb 2025

Award Date: 23 May 2025

Natural Resources Management, MSc, University of Twente

1 Sept 2017 → 22 Mar 2019

Award Date: 22 Mar 2019

Geographical Information Science, BSc, Wuhan University

1 Sept 2013 → 30 Jun 2017

Award Date: 30 Jun 2017

External positions

Remote sensing specialist

18 Jul 2022 → 31 Dec 2024

Data Analyst, World Resources Institute

18 Jan 2021 → 25 Aug 2021

AiO/Research Assistant, University of Twente

2 Dec 2019 → 1 Dec 2020

Intern, Esri (Redlands, CA)

31 May 2019 → 18 Oct 2019

Keywords

Faculty of Science
Remote sensing
Climate change
Deep learning
Drought
Land degradation
High resolution imaging
Phenology
Time series
Terrestrial ecosystems

8 Journal article
6 Conference abstract for conference
2 Preprint
1 Article in proceedings
More
- 1 Ph.D. Thesis
- 1 Working paper

Scattered tree death contributes to substantial forest loss in California
Cheng, Y., Oehmcke, S., Brandt, M. S., Rosenthal, L., Das, A., Vrieling, A., Saatchi, S., Wagner, F., Mugabowindekwe, M., Verbruggen, W., Beier, C. & Horion, S., 2024, In: Nature Communications. 15, 1, p. 1-13 641.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Open Access
File

48 Citations (Scopus)

150 Downloads (Pure)
A framework to assess multi-hazard physical climate risk for power generation projects from publicly-accessible sources
Luo, T., Cheng, Y., Falzon, J., Kölbel, J., Zhou, L., Wu, Y. & Habchi, A., 2023, In: Communications Earth and Environment. 4, 13 p., 117.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Open Access
File

12 Citations (Scopus)

136 Downloads (Pure)
Phenology of short vegetation cycles in a Kenyan rangeland from PlanetScope and Sentinel-2
Cheng, Y., Vrieling, A., Fava, F., Meroni, M., Marshall, M. & Gachoki, S., 2020, In: Remote Sensing of Environment. 248, 20 p., 112004.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Open Access
File

152 Citations (Scopus)

95 Downloads (Pure)
deadtrees.earth — An open-access and interactive database for centimeter-scale aerial imagery to uncover global tree mortality dynamics
Mosig, C., Vajna-Jehle, J., Mahecha, M. D., Cheng, Y., Hartmann, H., Montero, D., Junttila, S., Horion, S., Schwenke, M. B., Koontz, M. J., Maulud, K. N. A., Adu-Bredu, S., Al-Halbouni, D., Ali, M., Allen, M., Altman, J., Amorós, L., Angiolini, C., Astrup, R. & Awada, H. & 186 others, Barrasso, C., Bartholomeus, H., Beck, P. S. A., Bozzini, A., Braun-Wimmer, J., Brede, B., Breunig, F. M., Brugnaro, S., Buras, A., Burchard-Levine, V., Camarero, J. J., Candotti, A., Capuder, L., Carrieri, E., Centritto, M., Chirici, G., Cloutier, M., Conciani, D., Cushman, K., Dalling, J. W., Dao, P. D., Dempewolf, J., Denter, M., Dogotari, M., Díaz-Delgado, R., Ecke, S., Eichel, J., Eltner, A., Fabbri, A., Fabi, M., Fassnacht, F., Ferreira, M. P., Fischer, F. J., Frey, J., Frick, A., Fuentes, J., Ganz, S., Garbarino, M., García, M., Gassilloud, M., Gazol, A., Gea-Izquierdo, G., Gerberding, K., Ghasemi, M., Giannetti, F., Gillan, J., Gonzalez, R., Gosper, C., Greene, T., Greinwald, K., Grieve, S., Große-Stoltenberg, A., Gutierrez, J. A., Göritz, A., Hajek, P., Hedding, D., Hempel, J., Heremans, S., Hernández, M., Heurich, M., Honkavaara, E., Höfle, B., Jackisch, R., Jucker, T., Kalwij, J. M., Kepfer-Rojas, S., Khatri-Chhetri, P., Kleinebecker, T., Klemmt, H.-J., Klouček, T., Koivumäki, N., Kolagani, N., Komárek, J., Korznikov, K., Kraszewski, B., Kruse, S., Krüger, R., Kuechly, H., Kwong, I. H. Y., Laliberté, E., Langan, L., Latifi, H., Leal-Medina, C., Lehmann, J. R. K., Li, L., Lines, E., Lisiewicz, M., Lopatin, J., Lucieer, A., Ludwig, A., Ludwig, M., Lyytikäinen-Saarenmaa, P., Ma, Q., Mansuy, N., Peña, J. M., Marino, G., Maroschek, M., Martín, M. P., Martín-Benito, D., Matham, P., Mazzoni, S., Meloni, F., Menzel, A., Meyer, H., Miraki, M., Moreno, G., Moreno-Fernández, D., Muller-Landau, H. C., Mälicke, M., Möhring, J., Müllerova, J., Naidu, S. S., Nardi, D., Neumeier, P., Nita, M. D., Näsi, R., Oppgenoorth, L., Orunbaev, S., Palmer, M., Paul, T., Pfenning, M., Potts, A., Prasanna, G. L., Prober, S., Puliti, S., Pérez-Luque, A. J., Pérez-Priego, O., Reudenbach, C., Revuelto, J., Rivas-Torres, G., Roberge, P., Roggero, P. P., Rossi, C., Ruehr, N. K., Ruiz-Benito, P., Runge, C. M., Satta, G. G. A., Scanu, B., Scherer-Lorenzen, M., Schiefer, F., Schiller, C., Schladebach, J., Schmehl, M.-T., Schmid, J., Schmidt, T. A., Schwarz, S., Seidl, R., Seifert, T., Barba, A. S., Shafeian, E., Shapiro, A., de Simone, L., Sohrabi, H., Soltani, S., Sotomayor, L., Sparrow, B., Steer, B. S. C., Stenson, M., Stöckigt, B., Su, Y., Suomalainen, J., Tamudo, E., Barbieri, M. J. T., Tomelleri, E., Torresani, M., Trepekli, K., Ullah, S., Ullah, S., Umlauft, J., Vargas-Ramírez, N., Vatandaslar, C., Visacki, V., Volpi, M., Vásquez, V., Wallis, C., Weinstein, B., Weiser, H., Wich, S., Ximena, T. C., Zarco-Tejada, P. J., Zdunic, K., Zielewska-Büttner, K., de Oliveira, R. A., van Wagtendonk, L., von Dosky, V. & Kattenborn, T., 2026, In: Remote Sensing of Environment. 332, 15 p., 115027.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Open Access
File

13 Citations (Scopus)

61 Downloads (Pure)
Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, European guideline targets, and cardiovascular outcomes: An individual patient data meta-analysis
Zhang, D. Y., An, D. W., Yu, Y. L., Melgarejo, J. D., Boggia, J., Martens, D. S., Hansen, T. W., Asayama, K., Ohkubo, T., Stolarz-Skrzypek, K., Malyutina, S., Casiglia, E., Lind, L., Maestre, G. E., Wang, J. G., Imai, Y., Kawecka-Jaszcz, K., Sandoya, E., Rajzer, M. & Nawrot, T. S. & 8 others, O'Brien, E., Yang, W. Y., Filipovský, J., Graciani, A., Banegas, J. R., Li, Y., Staessen, J. A. & International Database of Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Relation to Cardiovascular Outcomes Investigators, 2025, In: European Heart Journal. 46, 30, p. 2974-2987 14 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Open Access
File

15 Citations (Scopus)

136 Downloads (Pure)
Global, multi-scale standing deadwood segmentation in centimeter-scale aerial images
Möhring, J., Kattenborn, T., Mahecha, M. D., Cheng, Y., Schwenke, M. B., Cloutier, M., Denter, M., Frey, J., Gassilloud, M., Goritz, A., Hempel, J., Horion, S., Jucker, T., Junttila, S., Khatri-Chhetri, P., Korznikov, K., Kruse, S., Laliberté, E., Maroschek, M. & Neumeier, P. & 7 others, Perez-Priego, O., Potts, A., Schiefer, F., Seidl, R., Vajna-Jehle, J., Zielewska-Büttner, K. & Mosig, C., 2025, In: ISPRS Open Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. 18, 12 p., 100104.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Open Access
File

3 Citations (Scopus)

16 Downloads (Pure)
Quantifying the drivers of tree mortality: A case study from urban recreational boreal forest
Jääskeläinen, J., Junttila, S., O’Sullivan, H., Cheng, Y., Horion, S. & Vastaranta, M., 2025, In: Urban Forestry & Urban Greening. 104, 17 p., 128672.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Open Access
File

4 Citations (Scopus)

20 Downloads (Pure)
Remotely Sensed Forest Health: Tree Mortality Mapping and Characterisation using Sub-meter Aerial Images and Computer Vision
Cheng, Y., 2025, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen. 232 p.
Research output: Ph.D Thesis › Ph.D. Thesis

File

4 Visiting an external academic institution
1 Lecture and oral contribution

Teaching assistant for the MSc course - "Satellite Image Processing and Analysis in the Big Data Era"
Cheng, Y. (Other)
Apr 2023 → Jun 2023
Activity: Presentations, memberships and other activity types › Lecture and oral contribution
ETH Zürich
Cheng, Y. (Visiting researcher)
Feb 2024 → Mar 2024
Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution
Southern University of Science and Technology
Cheng, Y. (Visiting researcher)
Dec 2023
Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution
Wuhan University
Cheng, Y. (Visiting researcher)
Dec 2023
Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution
United States Geological Survey
Cheng, Y. (Visiting researcher)
Jul 2023
Activity: Visiting an external institution types › Visiting an external academic institution

DDSA Travel Grant 2023
Cheng, Y. (Recipient), Jun 2023
Prize: Prizes, scholarships, distinctions
IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Travel Grant
Cheng, Y. (Recipient), May 2023
Prize: Prizes, scholarships, distinctions
ITC Excellence Scholarship
Cheng, Y. (Recipient), Apr 2017
Prize: Prizes, scholarships, distinctions
Outstanding PhD Students Award
Cheng, Y. (Recipient), Jul 2024
Prize: Prizes, scholarships, distinctions

Yan Cheng

Personal profile

Short presentation

Education/Academic qualification

External positions

Keywords

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Dive into details

Scattered tree death contributes to substantial forest loss in California

A framework to assess multi-hazard physical climate risk for power generation projects from publicly-accessible sources

Phenology of short vegetation cycles in a Kenyan rangeland from PlanetScope and Sentinel-2

deadtrees.earth — An open-access and interactive database for centimeter-scale aerial imagery to uncover global tree mortality dynamics

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, European guideline targets, and cardiovascular outcomes: An individual patient data meta-analysis

Global, multi-scale standing deadwood segmentation in centimeter-scale aerial images

Quantifying the drivers of tree mortality: A case study from urban recreational boreal forest

Remotely Sensed Forest Health: Tree Mortality Mapping and Characterisation using Sub-meter Aerial Images and Computer Vision

Teaching assistant for the MSc course - "Satellite Image Processing and Analysis in the Big Data Era"

ETH Zürich

Southern University of Science and Technology

Wuhan University

United States Geological Survey

DDSA Travel Grant 2023

IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Travel Grant

ITC Excellence Scholarship

Outstanding PhD Students Award

Yan Cheng

Personal profile

Short presentation

Education/Academic qualification

External positions

Keywords

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Research output

Activities

Prizes