Alberto Hornero

I am a postdoc at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (CSIC), where I work on combining radiative transfer modelling and machine learning to monitor plant stress and functional traits from high-resolution hyperspectral and thermal imagery. I completed my PhD at Swansea University (UK), where my thesis focused on ...read more remote sensing and the integration of radiative transfer models with machine learning for vegetation monitoring, and hold an Engineer’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of Córdoba (Spain). Between 2021 and 2025, I also held an Honorary Research Fellowship at the University of Melbourne (Australia), strengthening international collaboration on precision remote sensing.

My research spans the development of end-to-end remote sensing workflows—from sensor integration and calibration to large-scale image processing—for the early detection of forest diseases such as Phytophthora and Xylella fastidiosa, the monitoring of water stress through thermal indicators like the CWSI, and the assessment of ecosystem resilience in Mediterranean oak woodlands and pine forests. This work is embedded in large international projects (EU Horizon Europe, ESA, NERC) aimed at anticipating decline and supporting sustainable management of forest and agroforestry systems.