Pillar A
Biodiversity Resilience & Informed Management of Protected Ecosystems
Driven by climate change, human endeavours and extreme phenomena, Europe’s habitats are under constant pressure, with only 15% of habitat assessments reporting a good conservation status. While forests are turning a green leaf, Natura 2000’s grasslands and wetlands have long been riding a rickety wagon.
Key Gaps in Environmental Tracking
No Short-Term Tracking
A total lack of indicators for assessing ecosystem responses on monthly and seasonal scales.
No Multi-Scale Vision
Missing indicators to track long-term trends across shifting temporal and spatial scales.
No Operational Systems
A critical lack of functional, integrated ecosystem health indicators.
e-genesis: The Nexus of Earth Intelligence
e-genesis fills the gap by bridging together Earth Observation, climate data, AI and deep environmental knowledge capable to deliver actionable intelligence on the resilience and health of Europe’s protected ecosystems.
01
How critical are ecological shifts over just a few months?
Seasonal Ecosystem Forecasts combine Earth Observation indicators with seasonal climate predictions to anticipate how protected grasslands and wetland habitats may respond to climate-related events like droughts, floods, heatwaves and fires.
By identifying and analysing changes in vegetation and water dynamics, e-genesis can provide an outlook of potential ecosystem alterations up to 7 months in advance, providing conversation managers and policymakers more time to anticipate risk and act.
02
How have ecosystems changed over time?
To map these Long-term Ecosystem Trends, e-genesis leverages the invaluable contributions of the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service (CLMS) and the decades-long Earth Observation water data extending back to 1980s through the fusion of Landsat with Sentinel data.
Integrating this long-term perspective to the ecosystem tracking enables for the seamless monitoring of vegetation and water conditions across Natura 2000 habitats in order to identify lasting trends, rates of change and dramatic shifts over time.
03
How healthy are ecosystems today?
Integrated Ecosystem Health is a composite “health” indicator per habitat type (grasslands, wetlands, woody elements). It merges water-content and vegetation data with conservation assessments and in-situ ecological data to paint a more complete picture of a habitat.
Having 2021 as the reference year across habitats, e-genesis compares ecosystem conditions with favourable conservation status and combines those statuses with long-term trends to identify the factors contributing to changes in ecosystem health.
What will e-genesis bring to the table?
Forecasting
- Forecasts of change in CLMS vegetation indicators in response to seasonal climate exposure ranging from one to several months
- Forecasts of change in CLMS water content indicators in response to seasonal climate exposure ranging from one to several months
Long Term Ecosystem Trends
- Long-term trends (from 1980s and on) in CLMS in CLMS vegetation
- Long-term trends (from 1980s and on) in CLMS water content indicators
Integrated Health
- Integrated “Health” indicator for wetlands
- Integrated “Health” indicator for grasslands
- Annual woody feature maps
Methodology
Biodiversity Resilience & Informed Management of Protected Ecosystems
Earth Observation & Climate Data
AI & Change Detection
Seasonal Ecosystem Forecasting
Long-term Trend Analysis
Ecosystem Health Assessment
Actionable Biodiversity Intelligence
TURNING EARTH INTELLIGENCE INTO REAL-WORLD IMPACT
Designed with communities
Protected-area managers
Monitor ecosystem conditions, anticipate changes and support management decisions.
Environmental authorities
Access consistent indicators for monitoring, assessment and reporting.
Research & EO community
Develop, validate and advance ecosystem intelligence and forecasting capabilities.
Policymakers
Use evidence-based information to support biodiversity protection and resilience strategies.