Commitments for biodiversity conservation require, inter alia, the assessment of the status and trends of biodiversity. For the key users, this translates into an increased demand for relevant and easily accessible biodiversity information. In this context, GEO BON, one of the flagships of GEO, is developing the framework of the Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) [1]. The EBVs are a minimum set of complementary measurements that capture major dimensions of biodiversity change, and are produced by integrating primary observations, (from e.g. in-situ monitoring or remote sensing), in space and time [2]. The production chain of EBVs often requires the use of models and ancillary data and should be documented in open and reproducible workflows [3]. The portal developed by GEO BON will deliver those EBVs to users, at various scales, and will allow on the fly calculations and visualisations of trends. The portal will provide access to the Remote Sensing enabled EBVs [4] developed within the ESA GlobDiversity and H2020 NEXTGEOSS projects.
MLU, UT, SYKE, WENR
The main users are the research community, monitoring agencies that inform ministries (e.g. CBD reporting),NGOs, industries interested in sustainable production and supply chains about biodiversity.
In situ data (S) from the eLTER sites, derived EO data products (AS): NPP, LAI, Canopy chlorophyll concentration, Land surface phenology, ecosystem extent and fragmentation, vegetation height, habitat change, derived EO data products from the ECOPOTENTIAL project.
The main outcome is constituted by the development of services to support biodiversity assessments based on the production and mobilization of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV) data. EBV development includes (1) the adoption of the EBVs approach by a wider community of biodiversity and data scientists in order to increase the number of compliant datasets, including the use of in-situ data from stakeholders involved in mySITE; (2) Taking the GEO BON EBV-Portal into a fully operational infrastructure facilitating access to EBV datasets under FAIR principles and (3) Uptake by user communities involved in biodiversity policy and assessments, facilitating the discovery and use of the data through developing a new Information Standard and providing access to basic analysis tools for assessing biodiversity change. Among these is the upgrade of the GEO BON EBV portal with web services that can be linked to and visualized in EcoSense for all protected area / long-term monitoring sites.
The e-shape project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement 820852