LOEWE-focus Natur 4.0 - Conservation monitoring through networked sensors as a basis for sustainable biodiversity protection and securing ecosystem functions.

Nature conservation strategies require the observation and assessment of landscape. Expert surveys must make compromises between the degree of detail, spatial coverage and temporal repetition, which can only be resolved to a limited extent by using airborne or satellite-based remote sensing approaches. This restricts differentiated nature conservation planning and reaction possibilities.
The aim of LOEWE's Nature4.0 project is to develop a prototype of Nature4.0, a modular environmental monitoring system for high-resolution observation of species, habitats and processes relevant to nature conservation. Natur4.0 is based on the combination of expert knowledge and networked remote sensing and environmental sensors, which are attached to stationary and mobile platforms such as trees, UAVs, moving robots and animals. Together with powerful data integration and data analysis methods, Nature4.0 enables the differentiated and effective observation of landscapes. The recorded time series also serve to develop early warning indicators. Nature4.0 is thus breaking new ground in the field of comprehensive environmental monitoring. It consolidates in situ investigations by experts and uses non-regular data collection with mobile platforms in a crowdsensing approach to model nature conservation information in the form of regular, small-scale differentiated raster maps.

Project Lead: University of Marburg
Funding: LOEWE
Team@: Hanna Meyer (Associated partner and Co-Applicant of the sub-project “Remote Sensing and Spatial prediction”)
Term: 2019 - 2022
More Information: To the project homepage