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Hire Debabrata B.

India

USD 35 /hr

PhD Forest Ecology | Satellite-Based Biomass & Carbon Stock Estimation | Field-Validated AGB Models

Profile Summary

Forest ecologist and geospatial scientist with 5+ years of experience bridging field-based forest inventory and satellite-derived aboveground biomass (AGB) and carbon stock estimation. I combine hands-on tropical forest fieldwork with multi-sensor remote sensing (Sentinel-1/2, GEDI LiDAR, ALOS-2 SAR) and machine learning (Random Forest, XGBoost, SVM) to build and validate biomass and carbon models that hold up against real ground truth, not just satellite assumptions. I established a 10-ha permanent forest plot in a Western Ghats rainforest (India) and led an 8-person team through the first full census of a lowland dipterocarp forest, inventorying over 60,000 trees. I've since applied that field expertise to satellite-based AGB modeling, uncertainty quantification, and structural equation modeling (SEM/pSEM) of the drivers of biomass across spatial scales, work published in journals including Trees, Forests and People and Scientific Data (8 peer-reviewed publications, 7 in Q1 journals). I offer freelance support for: Aboveground biomass / carbon stock modeling using Sentinel-1/2, Landsat, GEDI, and SAR data Forest inventory design, permanent plot protocols (CTFS/ForestGEO), and field data QA/QC Statistical and structural equation modeling (R) for ecological and biomass datasets Remote sensing-based land cover/land use and biodiversity mapping Manuscript/report writing, statistical review, and R-based reproducible analysis pipelines Carbon project baseline and MRV support (REDD+/afforestation biomass validation) Comfortable working with researchers, NGOs, carbon project developers, and companies needing rigorous, field-validated biomass or forest ecology analysis. Available for both short technical consultations and longer project-based engagements.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ☆ Forestry
• ☆ Remote Sensing
• ☆ Statistics
• ☆ Ecology
• ☆ R

Services

• Writing
• Research
• Consulting
• Data & AI
• Product Development

Writing Technical Writing, General Proofreading & Editing

Research Meta-Research, Fact Checking, Scientific and Technical Research, Systematic Literature Review, Secondary Data Collection

Consulting Scientific and Technical Consulting

Data & AI Predictive Modeling, Statistical Analysis, Image Processing, Image Analysis, Algorithm Design-ML, Data Visualization, Data Processing

Product Development Product Validation, Quality Assurance & Control (QA/QC), Concept Development

Work Experience

PhD Fellow

French Institute of Pondicherry

February 2021 - Present

Research Scholar

French Institute of Pondicherry

February 2021 - December 2025

Junior Research Fellow and Project Associate

Andhra University

June 2018 - January 2021

Education

PhD

Manipal academy of higher education, Manipal, India

June 2021 - Present

Master of Science (Ecology)

Pondicherry University

July 2016 - May 2018

Certifications

• ETHx Landscape ecology

  edX

  https://courses.edx.org/certificates/fdca74da2f524b6d9d8d68f9648d1647

  September 2018 - Present

Publications

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Debabrata Behera, Naveen Babu Kanda, Kurian Ayushi, Ayyappan Narayanan, Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy (2026). Fine-Scale Mapping of Tropical Forest Tree Communities with Open-Source Multisensor Earth Observation and Machine Learning . Earth Systems and Environment.

Debabrata Behera, Naveen Babu Kanda, Rahul Gour, Kurian Ayushi, Ayyappan Narayanan, Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy (2026). Aboveground biomass mapping and uncertainty estimation in tropical forests using machine learning with multispectral and SAR data . Trees, Forests and People.

Debabrata Behera, Devika Menon, Vincy K. Wilson, Ayyappan Narayanan (2025). Tree diversity, community structure and aboveground biomass of a lowland dipterocarp forest of Western Ghats, India . Trees, Forests and People.

Debabrata Behera, Devika Menon, Narayanan Ayyappan (2025). Phenological trends and associated climate drivers of a tree community in lowland dipterocarp forest, Western Ghats, India . International Journal of Biometeorology.

Debabrata Behera, Suraj Reddy Rodda, Rakesh Fararoda, Rajashekar Gopalakrishnan, Nidhi Jha, Maxime Réjou-Méchain, Pierre Couteron, Nicolas Barbier, Alonso Alfonso, Ousmane Bako, et al. (2024). LiDAR-based reference aboveground biomass maps for tropical forests of South Asia and Central Africa . Scientific Data.

Debabrata Behera, Vinjumuri Ashok Kumar, J. Prakasa Rao, S. B. Padal, N. Ayyappan, C. Sudhakar Reddy (2024). Estimating Aboveground Biomass of a Regional Forest Landscape by Integrating Textural and Spectral Variables of Sentinel-2 Along with Ancillary Data . Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing.

Debabrata Behera, Vincy K. Wilson, Narayanan Ayyappan, Narayanaswamy Parthasarathy, Devika Menon (2024). Patterns of liana diversity and host interaction networks in selectively logged and unlogged forests of Uppangala, Western Ghats, India . Biotropica.

Wilson, V.K., Ayyappan, N., Parthasarathy, N., Menon, D., Behera, D.(2023). Patterns of liana diversity and host interaction networks in selectively logged and unlogged forests of Uppangala, Western Ghats, India . Biotropica.

Behera, D., Kumar, V.A., Rao, J.P., Padal, S.B., Ayyappan, N., Reddy, C.S.(2023). Estimating Aboveground Biomass of a Regional Forest Landscape by Integrating Textural and Spectral Variables of Sentinel-2 Along with Ancillary Data . Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing.

Behera Debabrata, Kurian Ayushi, Kanda Naveen Babu, C. Sudhakar Reddy, T. Mayamanikandan, Narayanan Barathan, Narayanan Ayyappan (2022). Remote sensing based characterisation of community level phenological variations in a regional forest landscape of Western Ghats, India . Geocarto International.

Ayushi, K., Babu, K.N., Reddy, C.S., Mayamanikandan, T., Barathan, N., Debabrata, B., Ayyappan, N.(2022). Remote sensing based characterisation of community level phenological variations in a regional forest landscape of Western Ghats, India . Geocarto International. 37. (27). Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 16620-16635.

BOOK CHAPTER

@incollection{Ghosh_2020, doi = {10.1007/978-3-030-56542-8_7}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-3-030-56542-8_7}, year = 2020, month = {oct}, publisher = {Springer International Publishing}, pages = {175--192}, author = {Santanu Ghosh and Debabrata Behera and S. Jayakumar and Pulakesh Das}, title = {Comparison of Sentinel-2 Multispectral Imager ({MSI}) and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager ({OLI}) for Vegetation Monitoring}, booktitle = {Spatial Modeling in Forest Resources Management}} .

Ghosh, S., Behera, D., Jayakumar, S., Das, P.(2021). Comparison of sentinel-2 multispectral imager (msi) and landsat 8 operational land imager (oli) for vegetation monitoring . Environmental Science and Engineering. Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Localization.LocalizedHtmlString 175-192.