ECOSYSTEM BASEMAPS AND HOW THEY HELP NATURE CONSERVATION

Humanity has been collecting terabytes of environmental data. However, without effective applications, their value for protected area managers remains limited. With this in mind, the Nature FIRST project is developing tools that allow one to access available environmental data and analyse and present it in an integrated and user-friendly way. This blog post delves into one of  these tools: auto-generated ecosystem basemaps. Join us as we explore their main characteristics, applications and how basemaps can be useful for managers of protected nature sites, like the ones in the Natura 2000 network.

What are ecosystem basemaps?

Ecosystem basemaps are automated representations of protected areas that provide information, organised in layers, about all characteristics of the area that can be collected and processed automatically. They thus include biotic, abiotic, natural and anthropogenic features, such as altitudes, gradients, soil types, groundwater levels, surface water, roads, built areas and points of interest, but also calculated layers such moisture and vegetation indexes, lidar-derived vegetation structure, distances to roads, water and built areas, and more.

The need for ecosystem basemaps in the EU has been discussed since the 2010s. For instance, the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020 outlined the need to carry out a mapping and assessment of ecosystems and their services for the EU Member States. Later, the newer EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 also called for developing an EU-wide methodology to map and assess the condition of ecosystems.

Due to their clear value and importance, the Nature FIRST project is developing and testing routines to create ecosystem basemaps for four field sites: the Maramures Transboundary Area, the Danube Delta, Ancares-Courel and the Stara Planina Mountains (see the map below).

The first tests will be completed this year. As the data required for creating ecosystem basemaps is all open source and worldwide available, ecosystem basemaps can be created for any protected area.

Examples of information contained in ecosystem basemaps

Some data layers in the ecosystem basemaps offer static information that remains rather constant over time, while others represent more dynamic data that is regularly updated. For instance, the digital elevation model, in this case for Maramures Transboundary Area, is very static. It shows varying altitudes ranging from 500 to 2000 metres above sea level. With this data, gradients, aspects and drainage patterns can be calculated, which in turn can be used for example to predict movement pattern or estimate potential species distributions.

An example of more dynamic data is the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, also known as the NDV Index, describing the area’s greenness, or more accurately, the photosynthetic vigour of the vegetation. The image below is an illustration of the NDVI of the Maramures Transboundary Area, measured in March 2023. 

As the photosynthetic vigour of the vegetation changes through the seasons and may be seriously affected by fires, land-use changes, and other disturbances, the NDVI is frequently updated.

As each version of each map layer is stored, time series analysis can be performed while researchers and other interested parties can easily access historical records.

How are we using ecosystem basemaps?

There are various applications of ecosystem basemaps, varying from visual analysis to the identification of (potential) wildlife corridors, automated change detection, the generalisation of localised findings, the production of detailed habitat maps, and last but not least, the provision of input for digital twins that are being developed to predict (and prevent) poaching incidents and human-wildlife conflicts. 

In the example below, the ecosystem basemap is combined with data about illegal activities to calculate a probability map of these illegal activities. The resulting risk-map can be used by the management of a protected area to make more informed decisions regarding priorities, patrol routes, or the placement of surveillance technologies, thus improving resource allocation and the overall effectiveness of protection measures.

Interested to learn more about the use of ecosystem basemap in relation to the production of habitat maps? Read the interview with Boris Hinojo of 3edata, one of the consortium partners of Nature FIRST.

Interested to learn more about the use of ecosystem basemap in relation to the development of digital twins? Read the interview with dr.ir. Koen de Koning of the WUR, another consortium partner of Nature FIRST and author of our first scientific publication Digital twins: dynamic model-data fusion for ecology.

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