Dr. Kripa M K has more than 10 years of research experience in the field of remote sensing of mangroves, forests and agriculture. She was a Junior (2014-2016) and Senior Research Fellow (2016-2019) at Space Applications Centre (SAC), ISRO Ahmedabad. Her research at SAC focused on national assessment of mangroves, specifically on large scale mapping and monitoring of forest productivity, decadal changes, species and structural diversity including the assessment of their biodiversity, physiology (Photosynthesis and Fluorescence), biophysical characterization (Leaf Area Index (LAI), canopy closure and canopy gap fraction), phytosociology (plant density, girth, height, basal area etc.) and conservation. She has also explored the biophysical parameters of several dense forests of India.

She skilled herself with statistical modelling techniques (Vegetation photosynthesis and Gross Primary Productivity (VPM model) and Fluorescence (SCOPE model), satellite image processing, handling of Google Earth Engine (GEE) and GIS based platforms (ArcMap, QGIS, ERDAS, ENVI) and other software like ViewSpecpro, R-STUDIO, SPSS, ORIGIN, JASP etc. Later she worked with Anand Agriculture University as a Senior Research Fellow (posted at SAC) in the project “Establishing a Centre for Agriculture Market Intelligence at AAU” funded by World Bank & ICAR funded NAHEP- CAAST Project. Later on, she joined the National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc Campus (Bangalore) as a Post Doctoral Associate with Prof. V. K. Dadhwal and worked on the Terrestrial Carbon Cycle of India.

She explored the litterfall, carbon flux and pools, biomass estimation and forest carbon cycle with the aid of meta-analysed data, statistical modelling and remote sensing techniques. She has published 2 book chapters, 11 journal papers, 6 conference publications, 5 scientific reports and has guided 8 interns from Digital University of Kerala and Kerala Agriculture University. She joined Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology as a Scientist and successfully completed 11 projects on biodiversity assessment. Her research continues to investigate modern techniques for modelling forests, mangroves and other plants and its implication on climate change, carbon sequestration and productivity.

Area of Expertise: Mangroves, Forests, Remote sensing, GIS, Statistical Modeling, Geospatial analysis, Agriculture, Carbon sequestration, Biomass, Gross Primary productivity, Photosynthesis, Fluorescence