Maksym Matsala

PhD in Forest Science (2021). My background is in natural forest dynamics, forest remote sensing and GIS, ecosystem services and carbon budget estimation, and a bit of fire ecology.

Now I work a lot with effects of Russian war on Ukraine's forests and also investigate the structure of Swedish forests with laser scanning (lidar) technologies.

2018-2021: I was doing my PhD about natural dynamics of Chornobyl forests in Ukraine. Several field expeditions and dense use of satellite time series data to uncover temporal patterns in this post-disaster landscape were definitely useful in building my expertise and competencies.

2022-2023: I worked on mapping modern forest wildfires in Sweden and supporting framework for simulating their spread based on forest structure, soil moisture, and road infrastructure

2023-2024: I invested a lot of time in mapping direct impact of Russian war on Ukraine's forests and analyzing the consequences and pathways to deal with it in the future

2024-2025: I work on detecting the change in long-term growth pattern for main tree species in Sweden using NFI data and new simple tree-level growth models

I closely work with Prof. Urban Nilsson and Prof. Emma Holmström on silvicultural matters and Dr. Igor Drobyshev (together with Sara Jones and Olga Wepryk) on applying lidar technologies to examine changes in forest structure after prescribed fires. In Ukraine, I continue to collaborate with Prof. Andrii Bilous and Prof. Viktor Myroniuk.

Since 2023, I teach at GIS in Forest and Landscape (examiner Prof. Emma Holmström), course for undergraduate students.

I was teaching at several courses for graduate students (e.g., Forest Modeling for sustainable forest management, Prof. Urban Nilsson).

I am course leader for two courses (post-graduate level): Introduction to GIS for applications in forest and landscape (2024) and Remote sensing to uncover vegetation structure (2025).