UNIVERSITY OF TWENTE (NL)
The main EO4Diversity objective and key innovation is to predict and monitor biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems through the integration of state-of-the-art multi-sensor Earth Observation (EO) imagery and products with next-generation ecological models. The project addresses important biodiversity science gaps, including (i) filling data gaps in the geographic, temporal, habitat and taxonomic composition coverage from in situ biodiversity observations; (ii) filling knowledge gaps, thereby assessing global species diversity; (iii) forecasting ecological degradation in order to define effective actions to reduce terrestrial biodiversity loss; as well as (iv) filling gaps in the data-policy link which may lead to a disconnection of biodiversity data that EO can generate and policy strategies including the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the UN SDGs and the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) post-2020 targets. The scientific and policy analyses, pilot demonstrations and agenda-setting that will be done during EO4Diversity will serve as a basis for the implementation of the EC-ESA Biodiversity Flagship Action in 2023.
