BIO_SOS - GA N. 263435Biodiversity Multi-Source Monitoring System:

From Space To Species.

www.biosos.eu

On behalf of BIO_SOS consortium

Palma Blonda, CNR-ISSIA, Bari-Italy

FP7-SPACE, 3rd call

Area 9.1.1. Pre-operational validation of GMES services and products:

BIODIVERSITY Start Date 1/12/2010 End Date 1/12/2013

BIO_SOS can contribute to:

User Requirements

•Monitoring and understanding of the impacts that human

induced pressures (e.g., such as urbanization, road

construction, agriculture expansion, logging) on Biodiversity

•Mapping at scale 1:5000 or finer. (How much is there? Is it

changing? ). Land cover/use (LC/LU) change maps at VHR.

•Users require scientific support to evaluate the extension of

the buffer area around Natura 2000 sites where different

policies should be defined

BIO_SOS objective

Development of a pre-operational multi-modular ecological

modelling system suitable for effective multi-annual

monitoring of NATURA 2000 sites and their surrounding in

Mediterranean areas exposed to combined pressures.

• Natura 2000 sites in 3 Mediterranean and 2 Western Europe Countries• Additional areas are being considered in two tropical countries

BIO_SOS working objectives

• The development of pre-operational automatic HR and VHR EO

data processing and understanding techniques for LC/LU and LCC

maps production as an improvement of GMES core services.

• The development of an ecological modelling framework at both

habitat and landscape level to combine EO and in-situ data for:

�Habitat and Habitat change mapping (GHC and Annex I)

�Biodiversity indicator extraction.

�Scenario analysis to evaluate the impact that human

pressures may have on soil, water and vegetation.

as an extension of GMES downstream–services

BIO_SOS peculiarities

• The system adopts deductive learning schemes, i.e. it

based on expert knowledge elicitation.

• Ontologies and semantic networks are used to formally

represent the expert-knowledge and allow automatic

inferences that would guide the image processing:

� Domain ontologies for LC/LU and Habitat class description

� Task ontologies for Data processing tools description

� The Unified Modeling Language UML language is used

BIO_SOS objective

Development of a pre-operational multi-modular ecological

modelling system suitable for effective and timely multi-

annual monitoring of NATURA 2000 sites and their surrounding

in Mediterranean areas exposed to combined pressures.

Its input data sources are VHR EO data and in-situ data

The system is based on deductive learning techniques, i.e. it is an expert knowledge based system for LCLU and Habitat mapping

Semantic net for olive grove:

• Nodes are objects

• Edges represent:temporal, spatial (e.g. adjacency, close to) and non-spatial (e.g. is a, part of) relations

FAO-LCCS can

describe, better

than CORINE,

different natural-

semi-natural

habitats.

The inclusion of

environmental

attributes is crucial

for habitat

discrimination

Earth Observation Data for Habitat Monitoring system (EODHaM)

Expert knowledge in the EODHaM 1st-stage: class spectral signatures

Expert knowledge in the EODHaM 2nd-stage: class description

BIO_SOS objective

Development of a pre-operational multi-modular ecological

modelling system suitable for effective and timely multi-

annual monitoring of NATURA 2000 sites and their surrounding

in Mediterranean areas exposed to combined pressures.

Its input data sources are VHR EO data and in-situ data

The system is based on deductive learning techniques, i.e. it is an expert knowledge based system for LCLU and Habitat mapping

Expert Knowledge in the EODHaM

3rd -stage: LCCS to GHC mapping disambiguation

BIO_SOS contribution to GEO Task BI-01

• Continuity with EBONE for biodiversity monitoring at regional level: it

can provide VHR habitat maps as GHC and Annex I maps from SPACE

• FAO-LCCS taxonomy and the elicitation of expert knowledge trough

ontologies and semantic networks are used as brokering tools to

combine different domains: possible link to “Infrastructure”:

• Development of a systematic mapping framework from LCLU to GHC.

• The output products will be made available for policy decision

making and to follow up impact of existing policies.

Collaboration to implement GEOTask BI-01

VHR data are collected by tasking (i.e., not available everywhere)

• Long-term collection/validation of both in-situ and contemporary

multi-scale EO data for sites monitored within GEO related FP7

projects (as hotspots or supersites) for indicator extraction and

trend evaluation:

� Habitat fragmentation evaluation is based on VHR imagery

� Species richness is based on multi-scale measurements;

• The frequency of data collection should be model (e.g. phenology)

driven for resource optimization.

Therefore, there is a need for:

Collaboration to implement GEOTask BI-01

• With data collection priority for:

� Mediterranean areas that typically lack long-term baseline data

for assessing changes and for indicator trends evaluation;

� Some threatened vegetation types of great ecological

importance do not correspond to any habitat type in the sense

of Directive 92/43/EEC.

Collaboration to implement GEOTask BI-01

• “Expert knowledge” sharing for both LC/LU and habitat class

description and ecological modelling. Link with Ms.Monina

project, but also possible link to the new EU_BON project.

� Expert knowledge to fill the gap between EO domain and

biological, ecological and cultural information needed for

biodiversity monitoring;

� Ontologies and semantic net. as tools for operational systems

development.

� The proposed monitoring technique can be extended to other

ecosystems, e.g. marine and agro ecosystems.

Le Cesine-Italy, LU MAPQuickBird: June, 2005

3rd stage EODHaM :Le Cesine-Italy, GHC MAP

QuickBird: July, 2005

GHC map

MS Worldview-2: Oct, 2010

GHC map

MS QuickBird: July, 2005

3nd stage EODHaM :

Le Cesine-Italy, Annex I and Eunis habitats

QuickBird: July, 2005

LCCS Env. attributes were used and GHC for masking URB, CUL, SPV

• More details in public deliverables at www.biosos.eu• Papers already submitted:� Kosmidou V., Mairota P., Petrou M., 2011. Landscape connectivity measures: A review.

Sub. to Landscape Ecology on October 3rd, 2011.

� Mairota P., Cafarelli B., Boccaccio L., Leronni V., Labadessa R., Kosmidou V., Nagendra

H., 2012. The use of landscape structure to develop quantitative baseline definitions for an

early warning system to use for habitat monitoring and change detection in protected areas.

Sub. to Ecological Indicators on April 3rd 2012.

� Nagendra H., Lucas R.M., Honrado J.P., Jongman, R.H.G., Mairota, P., Tarantino C., Adamo

M., 2012. Remote sensing for protected area assessment: monitoring habitat area,

condition,biodiversity and threats. Sub. to Ecological Indicators on January 13th ,2012.

� V. Kosmidou , Z. Petrou, R.G.H. Bunce, C. A. Mücher, R. Lucas, V. Tomaselli, P. Blonda, R. Jongman, M.M.B. Bogers, M. Petrou, Harmonization of the Land Cover Classification

System (LCCS) with the General Habitat Categories (GHC) classification system: linkage

between remote sensing and ecology, Sub. to Landscape Ecology on May, 2012.