Home page Thomas Corpetti

About

My main research focuses on the development of methodological approaches for the analysis of Earth observations (images, local sensors, time series, etc.). The applications are primarily related to environmental topics such as pollution, climatology, and agriculture.

I joined LETG-Rennes and OSUR in 2004. Between 2009 and 2012, I was based in Beijing, China, where I worked for LIAMA (Laboratory of Informatics, Automatics, and Applied Mathematics), a joint lab comprising Chinese institutions: CASIA (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Automation), Tsinghua University, and European organizations (INRIA, CNRS, INRAE, CIRAD, Groupe des Ecoles Centrales).

Since October 2012, I have been back in France as a CNRS Director of Research with LETG. I lead projects in collaboration with both French and international research groups.

Ongoing research topics

Vegetation & Remote Sensing

Analysis of urban vegetation

In the context of global change, urban areas face increasing challenges from extreme climate events. Trees play a crucial role in mitigating these impacts, but they must survive harsh environmental conditions. Our research aims to use physiological data, remote sensing, and machine learning to monitor tree health and develop management tools for urban resilience.

With Jean Nabucet, Cécile Sulmon-Maisonneuve, Gwenael Gouesbet, Nathalie Le Bris, Marion Chorin, Thierry Fontaine-Breton, Rémi Bodiguel, E. Le Rouzic, Karine Adeline, Laure Roupioz, Elise Collin, Etienne Everaere, Didier Le Thiec, Dorine Desalme, Cyril Buré, Charlotte Pelletier, Sabine El Moualy, Xavier Le Bris.

Urban ecology

3D Landscape and Biodiversity

Use 3D LiDAR data to characterize urban landscapes, model functional connectivity, and identify ecologically functional greenways. By combining biodiversity data and LiDAR data, we seek to improve our understanding of how urban green infrastructure can support biodiversity and ecosystem services.

With Hei-Taïna Marais, Solène Croci, Paul Leroy, Dimitri Lague

Urban environments

Urban pollution and urban heat islands

Coupling remote senging images, onsite and simulated measurments and machine learning to understand and predict the evolution of urban pollution and heat islands.

With Hiba Hamdi, Laure Roupioz, Xavier Briottet, Jean Nabucet, Saho Liang, Stephanie Tumampos, Antoine Lefebvre

Water turbidity

Interpretation of LiDAR bathymetric waveforms for water quality analysis

A bathymetric LiDAR is a remote sensing method that uses laser pulses to measure water depths. The resulting backscattered waveform contains valuable information related to turbidity, depth, and other parameters. Extracting these parameters from raw waveforms is a challenge, and we explore this aspect by combining physical models and machine learning.

With Mathilde Letard & Dimitri Lague

Health & Remote Sensing

Assessing the health impacts of agricultural practices using remote sensing

Assessing health risks associated with living near agricultural areas, particularly livestock farms. By leveraging Sentinel satellite data, we develop methods to identify agricultural practices, such as livestock buildings and fertilization areas, to better understand their impact on air quality and human health.

With Candide Lissak, Cécile Chevrier, Tarik Benmarhnia, Noemie Letellier, Nicolas Baghdadi, Sebastien Lefevre, Francois Merciol, Charlotte Pelletier

Landslides

Landslide analysis and open dataset

Neural network architectures for landslide detection using optical images and DEMs. Pre-training models on existing datasets and fine-tuning them with few new landslides data on new areas

Check out our open Hokkaido dataset in Japan

With Candide Lissak.

Super-resolution

Super-resolution of SENTINEL-2 or physical data

Neural networks for improving the spatial resolution of SENTINEL-2 and physical data (temperature, turbulence, vegetation).

With Aimi Okabayashi, Nicolas Courty, Charlotte Pelletier, Nicolas Audebert, Emilien Alvarez-Vanhard, Diego Di Carlo, Guglielmo Fernandez-Garcia, Charlotte Pelletier, Aurélie Michel, Carlos Granero-Belinchon, Antoine Lefebvre, Thomas Houet.

Machine Learning

Links between Machine Learning & Physics

Analysis of links between Machine Learning, Physical Processes and Optimal transport.

With Diego di Carlo, Nicolas Courty, Dominique Heitz

Point cloud analysis

Classification & change detection on LiDAR data

Efficient processing and representation of 3D point clouds ; 3D change detection

Simulation of urban point clouds for machine learning

With Mathilde Letard, Iris de Gelis, Florent Guiotte, Sébastien Lefèvre, Dimitri Lague, Antoine Collin

Waveforms and time series

Analysis of remote sensing time series and/or LiDAR waveforms

Semantic classification, structure identification, classification in waveforms

Comparison of time series, gap filling, analysis of historical data (change detection), transfer learning

With Mathilde Letard, Guglielmo Fernandez-Garcia, Dimitri Lague, Charlotte Pelletier, Ping Tang, Zheng Zhang, Antoine Lefebvre, Arnaud Le Bris, Antoine Collin

Remote Sensing

Data fusion, multiscale analysis, vegetation analysis

Different projects related to remote sensing in general (data fuion, links with ontologies, vegetation and agriculture monitoring, ...).

With Carl Bethuel, Damien Arvor, Samuel Corgne, Jean Nabucet, Laurence Hubert-Moy, ...

Kermap

Consulting with SME kermap in the context of CNRS concours scientifique

Different projects related to NIMBO plateform (data colorization, classification, gap-filling, super-resolution, ...).

With Thomas Cusson, Maxime Knibbe, Nicolas Ekicier, Nicolas Beaugendre, Antoine Lefebvre.

Publications

Google scholar profile

HAL

Courses

• 2020 -- present :

Europeanmaster COPERNICUS in digital earth : Machine learning and physics

• 2019 -- present :

Geography master, Univ. Caen, Image processing

• 2019 -- present :

ESIR, Image indexation & Machine Learning, Univ. Rennes I

• 2012 -- present :

TELENVI Master, Univ. Rennes II and Agrocampus, Image processing (ArcGis 10 / Python) & initiation to Machine Learning, Univ. Rennes II

• 2014 -- 2016 :

ENS Rennes , Machine Learning

• 2009 -- 2017 :

Ecole Centrale Beijing, Partial Differential Equations for image processing

• 2009 -- 2012 :

Beijing Jiaotong University, Image processing for remote sensing

• 2004 -- 2009 :

Univ. Rennes I, Partial Differential Equations for Image Processing

• 2004 -- 2009 :

Univ. Rennes II, TELENVI Master, Introduction to Image Processing

• Before 2004

Approx. 400 h in computer sciences and signal processing

Academic Activities (over past 5 years)

Administrative responsabilities

Current

• In charge of LETG-Rennes since 2023

• Member of OSUR 's scientific council since 2023

• Co-animation of MACLEAN (Machine learning for earth observation) action in GDR MADICS group since 2016

• In charge of sustainable development of UMR 6554 LETG

• In charge of the TIPE/CARIOCA research team since 2010

Past (main ones)

• Elected member of the scientific council of Univ. Rennes II since (2015 - 2023)

• In charge of the LOVE plateform (numerical aspects for environment) of OSUR from 2014-2022

• Scientific coordinator of LIAMA, 2011-2012

• In charge of of the "image analysis platform" of the Armorican Research Center in ENvironment (CAREN, 2006-2009)

• In charge of of the methodological axis of the Research Group MSG-ATR: Real Time Acquisition of Meteosat Second Generation data (2005-2009)

• Elected member of Social Sciences dpt's council, Univ. Rennes 2 (2013-2019)

Chair

• Chair of 9ème colloque du Groupe Hyperspectral de la SFPT, 2024 with Jean Nabucet

• General Chair of Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event, JURSE 2019 with Sébastien Lefèvre

• Co-Chair of MACLEAN Workshop during European Conference on Machine Learning / Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 with Dino Ienco, Roberto Interdonato, Sebastien Lefèvre and Minh-Tan Pham

• Chair of TEMU 2020 with Jean Nabucet

• Co-Chair of 8 MACLEAN research workshops with Dino Ienco, Roberto Interdonato, Sebastien Lefèvre and Minh-Tan Pham and Sébastien Lefèvre

• Chair of 6 national research days in the conect of OSUR (time series, UAV for environment monitoring, LiDAR, ...)

Edition

• Associate Editor of Remote Sensing Journal

• Associate Editor of Earth Journal

• Associate Editor of Revue Française de Photogrammétrie et Télédétection, national journal

• In charge of Remote Sensing Special Issue Advances of Remote Sensing in Pasture Management with Pauline Dusseux and Laurence Hubert-Moy

• In charge of IEEE JSTARS Special Issue Paving the way for the future of Urban Remote Sensing with Sebastien Lefevre, Monika Kuffer, Hannes Taubenbock, Clement Mallet

• In charge of Machine Learning (springer) Special Issue Machine Learning for Earth Observation Data with Dino Ienco, Roberto Interdonato, Sebastien Lefevre, Minh-Tan Pham

• In charge of Remote Sensing Special Issue Machine Learning and Pattern Analysis in Hyperspectral Remote Sensing with Xavier Briottet

Reviews

Journal

Regular reviewer in many international journals as IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, IEEE Transactions on Geosciences and Remote Sensing, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, Tellus Series A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronotics, Image and Video Computing, International Journal of Mathematical Imaging and Vision, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Experiments in Fluids, Electronic Letters on Computer Vision and Image Analysis, Measurement Science and Technology, Optical Engineering, Cahos, ...

Conferences

Regular reviewer or PC member in many international/national conferences as ISPRS Congress, ISA, SSVM, FedCSIS, ISA, IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision, IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition CVPR, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, IEEE International Geosciences and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSS, IEEE International Conference on Image Processing, Asian Conference on Computer Vision, RFIAP, CAP, ORASIS, ...

Projects

Current & Recent

• ANR MONI-TREE (2024-2028), MONItoring TREE comfort inside cities multiscale approach with multimodal remote sensing, physical modeling, deep learning and in-situ data (PI)

• TOSCA SR4VEG (2024-2026), Super-resolution of SENTINEL-2 data for monitoring vegetation (PI)

• France-China PIFI (2020-2024), Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative (PI)

• Dynalearn (Cominlabs) (2020-2023), interactions between deep learning and physical models

• ANR HIATUS (2019-2024), Historical Image Analysis for Territory evolUtion Stories

• ANR MULTISCALE (2019-2023), MULTI-variate, -temporal, -resolution and -SourCe remote sensing image Analysis and LEarning, France and Turkey

• ANR 6P, Interactions Plantes-Plantes Positives et Patrons spatiaux dans les résidus Post-mines Pyrénéens (2021-2024)

• ANR PALMEXPAND, Effets socioéconomiques et environnementaux de l'expansion des plantations de palmiers à huile en Indonésie

Some past projects

• France-China Deep-EO, Chinese Academy of Sciences - CNRS, Deep Learning for processing of earth observation data : application to local climate monitoring, 2017-2020 (PI)

• France-China Urba-Pol, Chinese Academy of Sciences - CNRS, Assimilation of multimodal observations for urban pollution forecasting and understanding, 2013-2016 (PI)

• France-China TIPE, Turbulence, Image, Physique, Environnement, LIAMA project, 2011-2014 (PI)

• France-China CARIOCA, Climate and Land Cover Analysis with complex data, 2014-2020 (PI)

• CNES TOSCA VEGIDAR, Analyse de la Végétation en Ville par couplage LIDAR et PLEIADES, 2014-2017 (PI)

• CNES TOSCA ARTIFICIALISATION, Suivi de l’artificialisation des sols par télédétection, soutien au CES (Centre d’Expertise Scientifique du pôle THEIA), 2015-2017

• ANR ASTERIX, Analyse Spatio-temporelle pour la Télédétection de l’Environnement par Reconnaissance dans les Images compleXes, 2014-2017

Students & Post-docs

PhD students

• Augustin De La Brosse, co-supervised with Thomas Houet, started in may 2024. Multispectral and LiDAR for monitoring ecological systems

• Hei-Taïna Marais, co-supervised with Solène Croci, started in november 2024. LiDAR for biodiversity understanding in cities

• Aimi Okabayashi, co-supervised with Nicolas Courty, Charlotte Pelletier, Nicolas Audebert, started in may 2024. Super-resolution with focus on vegetation

• Hiba Hamdi (PhD CIFRE kermap, co-supervised with Laure Roupioz and Xavier Briottet, started in may 2021). Urban climate & neural networks

• Mathilde Letard (PhD, co-supervised with Dimitri Lague, defended in Dec. 2023). LiDAR data analysis (bi-spectral 3D point clouds, waveforms)

• Iris de Gelis (PhD, co-supervised with Sebastien Lefevre, defended in Apr. 2023). Change detection in 3D point clouds

• Emilien Alvarez-Vanhard (PhD, co-supervised with Thomas Houet, defended in 2021). UAV and satellite synergies. Now in post-doc with IFREMER

• Florent Guiotte (PhD, co-supervised with Sebastien Lefevre, defended in 2021). Morphological analysis of 3D point clouds. Now research engineer in L'avion Jaune

• Sina Nakhostin (PhD, co-supervised with Nicolas Courty, defended in 2017). Hyperspectral unmixing. Now a post-doc with CNES

• Zheng Zhang (PhD, co-supervised with Tang Ping, defended in 2016). Time series analysis. Now has an academic position in Chinese Academy of Sciences

• Chen Xu (PhD, Ecole Centrale -Beijing, Lyon, defended in 2015). 3D turbulence analysis. Now has an academic position in Beihang University, Beijing, China

• Gong Xing (Phd, defended in 2015). Assimilation of remote sensing data in plant growth models. Now works in a company in China.

• Pascal Zille (Phd, defended in 2014). Fluid flow analysis in images. Now is a data scientist in Incepto Medical

• Pauline Dusseux (PhD, co-supervised with Laurence Hubert-Moy, COSTEL, Rennes, defended in Dec. 2014). Time series analysis for grassland monitoring. Now associate professor in Grenoble University

• Pierre Allain (PhD, co-supervised with Nicolas Courty, defended 2012, VALORIA, Vannes). Now is a data scientist in wipsea

• Antoine Lefebvre (PhD, co-supervised with Laurence Hubert-Moy, COSTEL, Rennes, defended in 2011). Creator and CEO of kermap

Past Post-docs

• Diego Di Carlo with Dynalearn project

• Guglielmo Fernandez-Garcia with ANR HIATUS project

• Claire Thomas with ANR MSG

Resume

Background

• 2011 :

PhD Habilitation, Univ. Rennes 1, Signal processing & Computer Vision

• 2002 :

PhD, Univ. Rennes 1, Signal processing & Computer Vision

• 1999 :

Master of Science, MS, Signal, télécommunications, images, radar, Rennes I University

• 1999 :

INSA Rennes engineer diploma, National Institute of Science and Technology, Electrical Engineering

Labs & positions

• 2012 -- present :

LETG-Rennes, CNRS Director of Research, Rennes, France

• 2013 -- present :

Association with OBELIX team, IRISA, Vannes, France

• 2009 -- 2012 :

LIAMA, Sino-Frech lab in computer sciences and applied mathematics, Beijing, China as CNRS researcher

• 2004 -- 2009 :

LETG-Rennes, CNRS Researcher, Rennes, France

• 2006 -- 2009 :

Association with FLUMINANCE team, INRIA, Rennes, France

• 2003 -- 2004 :

Post doc with INRAE

• 2002 -- 2003 :

Assistant professor with University Rennes I, Rennes, France

Contact Me

To send me an email : see my addresses or fill the fields below

Address

UMR 6554 LETG, Bâtiment N, Place du Recteur Henri Le Moal, 35043 RENNES CEDEX, FRANCE

Phone

+33 2 99 14 18 77

Email

thomas.corpetti @ univ-rennes2.fr

thomas.corpetti @ cnrs.fr

Venue