Informing Species Distribution Models and Essential Biodiversity Variables using Remote Sensing
University of Zurich, Irchel Campus, 05-09.02.2017
A joint workshop of the European Space Agency GlobDiversity consortium and the Future Earth Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment, Global Land Programme (GLP), and bioDISCOVERY Global Research Projects
Understanding patterns of biodiversity, predicting potential changes in response to drivers of global changes, and developing sustainable management and conservation strategies in line with the Aichi targets of the Convention for Biological Diversity and with the United Nations’ Agenda 2030 are international priorities. Accordingly, biodiversity monitoring and assessment sciences have made tremendous progress, notably with the development of a set of so-called Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), and the development of increasingly powerful Species Distribution Models (SDMs). In that scientific context, recent developments in remote sensing (RS) mark the beginning of a new area in biodiversity monitoring and assessment by enabling not only the collection of spatial data but also that of biodiversity data. Yet although promising, the combined use of RS and in situ data brings along conceptual and methodological challenges, not the least because of the different sources and forms of measurement errors associated with different kinds of data and the associated uncertainties. Accordingly, much work remains to be performed to fully understand whether, when, and how RS can truly inform SDMs and EBVs.
- The first part of the workshop focuses on the use of Remote Sensing data for informing Species Distribution Models (Part I, 5-7 February 2018, organizer: GMBA, davnah.payne@ips.unibe.ch)
- The second part of the workshop focuses on observation requirements for selected remotely sensed Essential Biodiversity Variables that are informed by satellites (Part II, 7-9 February 2018, organizer: GlobDiversity, info@globdiversity.net)
All podium presentations delivered during the workshop are open to the public!
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