After obtaining a Master’s degree and a PhD in Bioscience Engineering, Laurent Tits remained at the Geomatics lab as a postdoctoral researcher. His research focused on the use of hyperspectral and thermal remote sensing in the monitoring of orchards.

Since joining the Agricultural Applications team at VITO Remote Sensing in 2016, he remains involved in researching orchard monitoring, tree vitality and productivity assessments though various remote sensing platforms (satellite, airborne and UAV).

With the new advances in EO technology, it is amazing to see what is possible in agricultural monitoring

Laurent is primarily focused on the FAO-FRAME project. It is developing a database for the assessment of agricultural water productivity over Africa and the Near-East at different spatial resolutions; VITO is responsible for providing land cover and crop productivity information at 250m and 100m resolution.

Laurent is also responsible for the IFAD-EODM grant ‘Earth observation technologies for well-informed decisions in transforming smallholder agriculture’.