WHO IS BEHIND

Stefan Kleeschulte

Stefan Kleeschulte, managing director of space4environment, is a physical geographer with 30 years of professional experience working with environmental information and Earth Observation at European level. Working with EEA and the European Commission for over 20 years has allowed him to build up a deep understanding and overview of European environmental policies, their supporting data, quality and limitations.

He is heading the EAGLE working group – a group of national land monitoring experts – supporting the development of a second-generation European land monitoring framework, i.e., the Copernicus CLC+ product suite.

At space4environment, Stefan is leading various national and international activities and projects related to Copernicus, ecosystem extent, service and condition accounting, Green Infrastructure and LULUCF.

Manuel Löhnertz

Manuel is a spatial data analyst with a Diploma in Applied Environmental Sciences. He has more than 10 years of experience in spatial data management, analysis and processing of big data.

Manuel has acquired excellent knowledge in FME, SQL, IDL, R and Python scripting for process automation and evaluation. In the ETC BD he was the key responsible person for the spatial data for the data flows under CDDA, IAS and Article 12 and Article 17. He has been involved in the development and implementation of the INSPIRE-compliant enhancements to the listed data workflows.

He also contributes to the validation, processing, storage, analysis and publication of the data flows: he creates FME scripts, manages the MS-SQL databases, generates dimensions and data cubes on JEDI and publishes Tableau projects and ArcGIS services and maps for reports and web publications.

Karl Ruf

Karl holds a MS in environmental assessment and management with a major in conservation and restoration management and a BS in biogeographical analysis.

At space4environment his work is mainly focused on environmental and biodiversity research subjects in relation to ETC ULS and ETC BD activities addressing EU policies (CAP, BDS2020, BDS2030). Over the past years he has integrated Copernicus data and a variety of data sets from open-source databases as well as national and pan-European institutions including Art 12. and 17 data into his assessments.

As a data analyst by heart, he has a sound understanding of data analysis and visualization packages provided by R and Python.

At national level, Karl developed a GIS database and assessment methodology for disaster risk reduction in Luxembourg. Furthermore, he supported the identification of national reference regions for soil pollutants by geostatistical interpolation and analysis of soil sampling data.

Andrea Peters

Andrea is an expert in remote sensing and ecosystems and has a M.Sc. in Environmental Science with specialisation in remote sensing and modelling.

At space4environment, Andrea's work is mainly concerned with the validation and assessment of environmental data within the LUCAS project and other projects, as well as with the analysis of ecosystems and their functions.
As a remote sensing expert, she applies her knowledge in land cover classification from airborne and satellite earth observation data to assess and improve data quality. 
Being an environmental scientist, she has a deep understanding of data analysis in GIS and earth observation software, as well as data analysis using the R programming language.

Michelle Watson

Michelle has a background in environmental science & technology with a MRes and PhD in limnology.
Her expertise involves projects in the European policy context, mainly workflows and reporting under the Nature Directives (Birds and Habitats Directives, Natura 2000), data quality & coherence, and the EUNIS habitat classification system.
She has previously worked in fisheries and marine protected areas at national level (IE, UK) before working in the ETC BD and ETC BE on biodiversity and European policy topics.

Her role at space4environment focuses on providing support to the EU Grasslands Watch programme, ecosystem typology crosswalk expertise to the SELINA project on natural capital, and development of Copernicus mapping products with ETC DI. She also works on projects at Luxembourg national level, such as state of nature and ecosystem services. Michelle is proficient in ArcGIS and Tableau data visualisation.

Mirko Gregor

Mirko holds a Diploma degree in Applied Physical Geography from the University of Trier with a focus on geomorphology, remote sensing and climatology. He has almost 20 years of experience in the field of earth observation, geospatial analysis and thematic assessments and could apply this knowledge in numerous projects in Europe and Africa. Mirko has developed a strong expertise in the coordination and management of international projects liaising directly with large contracting institutions (such as the European Environment Agency, the European Commission or the European space Agency) on the one hand and project partners on the other. This expertise includes the coordination and preparation of reports and the presentation of projects at conferences and workshops.

At space4environment, Mirko is responsible for project management, the conceptual development of indicators and assessments as well as analysis and reporting. Moreover, he is involved in the translation of user requirements into technical specifications and quality control of geospatial products. Last but not least, he also contributes to the acquisition of projects and proposal writing.

Christopher Philipsen

Christopher holds a Diploma in Applied Physical Geography from the University of Trier with a focus on geomorphology, remote sensing and spatial data analysis. With ten years of experience in processing and analysing thematic and spatial data from various sources such as satellites, aerial sensors or ground-based observations, he applies these skills in several projects on the environment in Europe. As part of European Topic Centres on different themes, he acts as a key expert in data management, processing and analysis as well as visualisation for different institutions (such as the European Environment Agency, the European Commission or national ministries).

As part of space4environment's work, Christopher is one of the heads of the IT department and is responsible for maintaining databases and processing infrastructures, among other things. He also applies his in-depth technical and thematic knowledge to the development of processing algorithms on different platforms and scripting languages, as well as to the analysis of data for different purposes. The visualisation of data analyses and derived indicators is also one of his domains of work.

Inge Kleeschulte

Inge holds a Diploma degree in human geography. After working as consultant for Eurostat and for local and city administrations on projects related to biotope mapping, IACS application control and citizen participation for city quarter development, she joined space4environment in 2015 in a dual role as administrative and financial manager as well as environmental expert supporting Copernicus quality control, land cover mapping and project reporting.

Maria Ricci

Maria is a junior spatial data analyst with a M.Sc. in Geoinformatics. Her expertise encompasses various domains, including GIS, web mapping, machine learning, and statistics. She is proficient in Python, R, and web development stacks.
Before turning to the earth observation and geospatial sciences, she completed a Master's degree in Advanced Mathematics, where she specialised in algebraic geometry and numerical analysis.

In her current role at space4environment, Maria primarily focuses on statistical and spatial data analysis, data management, and machine learning. Within the FAIRiCube project, she leverages her programming and developement operations experience to derive machine learning-driven insights into urban adaptation to climate change. Additionally, she contributes to ETC DI activities aimed at enhancing Copernicus products and carbon mapping indicators.
At the national level, Maria has participated in the land use map update and is currently involved in developing a methodology for land price estimation.
She collaborates closely with other team members to optimize workflow organisation through the adoption of the latest technologies.