Project description
Technologies for monitoring biological aerosols
Biological aerosols are released from terrestrial and marine ecosystems and have an important impact on agriculture and forestry. At the same time, some bioaerosols such as pollen or fungal spores cause allergies to millions of individuals worldwide. Therefore, there is a need to monitor bioaerosols and generate freely available and timely information regarding their localisation and impact. To address this, the EU-funded SYLVA project proposes to develop bioaerosol monitoring technologies and infrastructure across Europe. These will take into consideration environment- and climate-related bioaerosol changes and will be broadly applicable in agriculture and health.
Objective
Primary biological aerosols (bioaerosols: mainly pollen and fungal spores, but also bacteria and viruses) released into the air by plants, fungi, and other biota, are strongly impacted by climate change. Simultaneously, they also directly affect the climate through interactions with clouds and precipitation. Many bioaerosols, especially pollen and some fungal spores, have allergenic effect on humans. Such aeroallergens affect over 80 million Europeans, reducing their quality of life and costing well over €50 billion/year. Information on bioaerosols is also vital for agriculture and forestry, where timely data about plant development, abundance of pathogens and parasites, as well as invasive species, are necessary for precision-agriculture and knowledge-based technologies. The demand for timely, free, and objective information is currently not met.
The overall goal of SYLVA is:
To achieve a radical improvement and fill gaps in temporal resolution, timeliness, coverage, and availability of information about aeroallergens and other bioaerosols. SYLVA technological innovations will be accompanied with new infrastructure, distribution and exploitation pathways, and links with stakeholders to ensure technology uptake and sustainability beyond the lifetime of the project.
To achieve this goal, the project will:
- Develop cutting-edge bioaerosol monitoring technologies
- Create bioaerosol monitoring ICT infrastructure and software following open-source principles and connect it to European environmental observing systems
- Validate the operational maturity and added-value of bioaerosol monitoring technology through Demonstration Pilots in three European regions
- Maximise impact by demonstrating SYLVA innovations to key stakeholders related to climate, health, agriculture, silviculture, and the environment
- Ensure the long-term sustainability of bioaerosol technology and infrastructure across Europe
Fields of science
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic health
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learningunsupervised learning
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesforestrysilviculture
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculture
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-IA - HORIZON Innovation ActionsCoordinator
00560 Helsinki
Finland