Katarzyna Ostapowicz

Katarzyna Ostapowicz is a researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA) in Tromsø, Norway. With a background in geography and physics, she holds a PhD in Earth Sciences. Her research explores how Earth Observation (EO), Earth Observation/Remote Sensing, geoinformatics, and artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to analyse land system dynamics, particularly in mountainous and polar regions. She investigates land cover and land use change, vegetation dynamics, and biodiversity patterns, integrating multi-sensor satellite data, machine learning, and cloud computing.

Her work examines the impacts of both climate change and human activities on ecosystem processes, including carbon fluxes, habitat transformations, and landscape fragmentation, using long-term geospatial datasets and Simulation Modelling (ABM/Predictive/Economic modelling) approaches. She has contributed to international research on large-scale land system changes, particularly in forested and tundra environments, assessing environmental change and human interactions over extended temporal scales. She collaborates across disciplines to develop methods for improving environmental monitoring and informing conservation and land management strategies.