Blaz Klobucar

Blaz Klobucar (Slovene: Blaž Klobučar) is a researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management in Alnarp, where he works in a research group focused on the governance and management of urban green infrastructure.

He completed his doctorate at SLU in 2021, supervised by a Nordic team spanning urban forestry management and remote sensing. Since then he has built a research profile that combines quantitative remote sensing with the planning and management context in which urban tree data are used. His current Formas project uses deep learning to map urban tree canopy change from historical black-and-white aerial photographs of Swedish cities.

2023–now Researcher, Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Alnarp

Current Sentinel Hub Partner

Jan–Jun 2018 Guest researcher, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Syracuse, NY, with the i-Tree development team led by David Nowak

2017–2021 PhD in Landscape Planning, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Department of Landscape Architecture, Planning and Management

2013 Master’s degree in Forestry Science, University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty

Further courses: Spatial Statistics and Remote Sensing for Doctoral Researchers (SLU Alnarp); Introduction to Applied Spatial Statistics (SLU Umeå); Advanced Digital Landscape Analysis (SLU Alnarp); ESF 300 Introduction to Geospatial Information Technology (State University of New York)

• Urban tree canopy change from historical black-and-white aerial photographs, mapped with deep learning
• LiDAR-based tree crown segmentation
• Residential urban forests: tree structure, ecosystem services and socio-ecological drivers
• Governance and management of urban green infrastructure, including long-term urban tree monitoring and nature-based solutions

Formas (Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development)

• 2023 Early-career researcher grant, 4 MSEK over 4 years, as project leader: “Historical urban tree cover change and the potential implications for sustainable urban planning”
• 2016 Open call, 3 MSEK over 3 years, funding the doctoral project “Ecosystem services of private residential urban trees”; contributed to writing the application

FOMA (Environmental monitoring and analysis, SLU)

• 2023 Urban Tree Detection in Historical Aerial Imagery of Sweden. 6-month grant. Report
• 2022 Monitoring the provision and condition of high-value restorative outdoor environments with remote sensing and Volunteered Geographic Information. 6-month grant. Report

Peer-reviewed articles

• Skogh, S., Klich, C., Norberg, H., Klobucar, B., in press. Viewing Trees in Dimension: LiDAR as Decision-making Support in Spatial Planning. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening.
• Klobucar, B., Östberg, J., Wiström, B., Jansson, M., 2021. Residential urban trees – socio-ecological factors affecting tree and shrub abundance in the city of Malmö, Sweden. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 62, 127118.
• Klobucar, B., Sang, N., Randrup, T. B., 2021. Comparing ground and remotely sensed measurements of urban tree canopy in private residential property. Trees, Forests and People 5, 100114.
• Klobucar, B., Östberg, J., Jansson, M., Randrup, T. B., 2020. Long-Term Validation and Governance Role in Contemporary Urban Tree Monitoring: A Review. Sustainability 12(14), 5589.
• Wiström, B., Busse Nielsen, A., Klobucar, B., Klepec, U., 2015. Zoned selective coppice – A management system for graded forest edges. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 14(1), 156–162.

Doctoral thesis

• Klobucar, B., 2021. Residential Urban Forest Assessment Methodologies: A Management Perspective. Doctoral thesis, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Reports

• Klobucar, B., Skärbäck, E., Sang, N., 2024. Monitoring the provision and condition of high-value restorative outdoor environments with remote sensing and Volunteered Geographic Information. Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Horticulture and Crop Production Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
• Klobucar, B., 2024. Urban Tree Detection in Historical Aerial Imagery of Sweden: a test in automated detection with open source Deep Learning models. Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Horticulture and Crop Production Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Spring 2024–now Course leader, Independent project in Landscape Architecture (EX1011) in the international Bachelor’s programme Forest and Landscape

Jan 2027 Open online course (MOOC), in development: Urban Tree Assessment: Data-Driven Decisions for Urban Forest Management, five modules on R-based analysis of urban tree inventories, launching on SLU’s platform

2018–now Guest lecturer and teaching assistant in:

• Landskapsförvaltning & Skötsel av grönytor och naturmarker (Landscape Management course)
• Trädvårdskursen (Tree care course)
• Urban Forestry – management of urban forests and trees
• Planeringens grunden (Introduction to planning)
• Advanced Digital Landscape Analysis with GIS

Supervision

• Alice Liu Karsvall, Bachelor’s programme Forest and Landscape. Thesis: Where the farm became forest: a design vision for a nature-based healing cohousing community in Sweden

Pedagogical training

• Course in Doctoral Supervision (ongoing)
• Teaching in Higher Education, basic course (autumn 2025)
• Course in Grading and Assessment (2025)

• May 2026 European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF), Malmö, Sweden. Presentation: Tree Crown Detection on Historical Orthophoto Images: A Comprehensive Review
• July 2022 Sinergise Summer School, Ljubljana, Slovenia. Workshop: Earth Observation – from satellite imagery to modern applications
• 2019, 2021 Träddagarna (Swedish Tree Association Conference). Presentation: Residential urban trees of Malmö
• 2018 European i-Tree Conference, Malmö, Sweden. Presentation: i-Tree for ecosystem services of private residential trees
• 2018 International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) Annual Conference, Columbus, Ohio. Presentation: Residential urban trees of Malmö
• 2017 Green Surge Conference, Malmö, Sweden. Presentation: Residential urban trees of Malmö

• 2026 Ugriznimo znanost, RTV Slovenija (television). Featured in the episode Drevesa v mestu (Trees in the city)
• April 2022 N1 Slovenija. Interview: “Vsakič, ko v mestu pogledate skozi okno, bi morali videti vsaj tri drevesa” (Every time you look out of a window in the city, you should see at least three trees)

• Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
• Trees, Forests and People
• Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
• Nature Scientific Data
• Urban Ecosystems

• Deep learning for image segmentation (Python)
• LiDAR point clouds and tree crown segmentation
• Urban tree inventories and spatial sampling design
• i-Tree for assessing urban forest structure and ecosystem services
• R for statistics and data analysis
• QGIS, ArcGIS Pro
• Remote sensing and spatial analysis
• Science communication and public speaking

Languages: Slovene, Swedish, English (professional proficiency)