PREVENTING THE DECLINE OF BIODIVERSITY
Sensing Clues is privileged to lead Nature FIRST, a three-year HORIZON Research and Innovation programme funded by the European Commission.
In collaboration with 12 consortium partners, we aim to develop predictive, proactive, and preventative capabilities for the protection, management, and nurturing of nature. We achieve this by integrating theoretical insights from ecology and environmental forensics with empirical environmental observations, creating a proof of principle that will be tested and demonstrated across four European countries and six biogeographical regions.
Overall Approach & objectives
We propose a model-driven approach to continuous ecosystem monitoring, not only numbers of species and state, but also the modelled ecological and anthropogenic processes within an ecosystem and their interactions. This method allows us to detect cause-and-effect relationships and refine our models through simulations and retrofits, enhancing our understanding of environmental changes. These models, or Digital Twins, help translate environmental data into actionable information for site managers and policymakers.
our FOUR inter-RELATED Tools for PROOF OF PRINCIPLE
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A tool for automatically generating detailed ecosystem base maps, incorporating biotic, abiotic, natural, and anthropogenic features. This will enhance map quality, drastically reduce creation costs, and simplify ecosystem comparisons.
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A tool for automatic ecosystem monitoring and intervention evaluation. This will enable continuous, proactive alerts to detect and address early signs of biodiversity decline.
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Modelled ecological and anthropogenic processes provide the framework to interpret environmental observations. They enable data-driven predictions and scenario simulations, advancing the understanding of biodiversity drivers and declines.
First concrete results:
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Semantic methods are being developed to bridge taxonomic differences between data collections and organisations. We will use advanced graph and semantic AI technologies for this purpose.
Nature FIRST is a Research and Innovation Action (RIA) from HORIZON-CL6-2021-BIODIV-01-02 Call (grant Agreement ID 101060954) that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme.