Thanh-Noi Phan

Dr. Thanh-Noi Phan is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Geography, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU Munich), Germany, where he has worked since June 2019. He earned a B.S. in Geodesy from Hanoi University of Mining and Geology (Vietnam) in 2007, an M.S. in Natural Resources Management from the Asian Institute of Technology (Thailand) in 2012, and a Ph.D. in Geography from Georg-August University of Göttingen (Germany) in 2018.
Before joining LMU, he worked as a full-time lecturer at the Vietnam National University of Agriculture (Hanoi, Vietnam) from 2008 to 2013, and as a Geodesy Engineer/Land Surveyor at the Geodetic and Topographic Division (Hanoi, Vietnam) from 2007 to 2008.

His research broadly focuses on understanding the interactions between human activities and surface climate, the environment, and landscapes across various scales. He utilizes field-based inventory data, advanced Earth Observation/Remote Sensing techniques, data harmonization, and diverse geocomputational approaches to achieve his research objectives.

He is currently working on the MORESTEP – Mobility at Risk: Sustaining the Mongolian Steppe Ecosystem project. This collaborative and interdisciplinary research initiative, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), brings together partners from Germany and Mongolia. The project integrates social and natural sciences to identify societal drivers that could push the Mongolian steppe ecosystem toward an ecological tipping point. By combining field research, advanced Earth Observation/Remote Sensing techniques, and spatial modeling, the project enhances understanding of environmental and ecosystem dynamics under the pressures of social transformation and climate change. The Earth Observation/Remote Sensing Team at Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU) plays a central role by integrating vegetation plot data, local knowledge, and Earth observation data.

Since his first paper was published in 2016, he has authored 17 scientific research articles on land cover classification, land use/cover change, air surface temperature, urban heat islands, and biomass estimation. Among these, he is the first author of eight papers and has two highly cited publications. Total citations exceed 2,500 (source: Google Scholar, updated April 28, 2025). For more information, please visit his ORCID profile at https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2747-5028.