Vera Bekkers

Vera Bekkers is a Researcher at Wageningen University & Research, focusing on the Earth Systems and Global Change department. Her work bridges plant architecture analysis, remote sensing technologies, and ecological modeling to advance understanding of forest systems.

• Role: Education/Research Officer
• Institution: Wageningen University & Research

Research Interests

Vera specializes in Functional-Structural Plant Models using Terrestrial LiDAR for 3D representation of vegetation. Her research optimizes parameterization efficiency in tree models, supporting applications in forest ecology, biomass estimation, and canopy analysis. She contributes to improving structural models for both temperate (Scots Pine) and tropical tree species.

Dataset Contributions: Vera curates open-access datasets derived from LiDAR-based plant architecture studies, enhancing reproducibility in ecological research. Her methodological innovations include model mining in sensor data for terrain analysis and developing region-specific allometric models for Guyana and Suriname.