Descrizione del progetto
Monitorare il degrado della savana
Coprendo oltre la metà del continente africano, le savane ospitano molte piante e animali unici. Queste vaste pianure sono sparse e gli alberi ampiamente distanziati sono minacciati dal disboscamento, dallo sviluppo, dalla conversione all’agricoltura e dall’eccessivo pascolo del bestiame. Poiché le riduzioni della produttività delle savane delle terre aride hanno importanti implicazioni sociali e politiche, le Nazioni Unite hanno lanciato l’allarme, rendendo altamente prioritaria l’accurata quantificazione del degrado delle savane. Il progetto SAV-EO, finanziato dall’UE, utilizzerà nuove metodologie di telerilevamento, basate su dati satellitari ottici e radar disponibili gratuitamente, per mappare e monitorare la copertura legnosa frazionata sull’intera regione della savana sudafricana. Progetterà inoltre uno strumento di monitoraggio per identificare i processi di degrado del terreno alla base, quali l’invasione dei cespugli e la deforestazione.
Obiettivo
Savannahs are important ecosystems that are found on almost half of the African continent. Unfortunately, they undergo massive conversions and are affected by land degradation processes leading to a decline in the ecosystem services they provide to some of the continent’s poorest and most vulnerable human populations. Reductions in the productivity of dryland savannahs have major social and political implications, and the United Nations (UN) has labelled the accurate quantification of savannah degradation as of high priority.
Monitoring the woody component of savannah land cover is, therefore, needed to enhance the understanding of broad-scale changes in savannahs & their relationship with ecosystem degradation. Over large scales, this can only be achieved in a cost-effective manner using Earth Observation (EO) technologies. The development of SAV-EO is, therefore, proposed which will employ novel remote sensing methodologies, based on thousands of freely-available optical & radar satellite data for the mapping & monitoring of fractional woody cover over the entire southern African savannah region (1,500,000km2). A monitoring tool that identifies underlying land degradation processes, such as bush encroachment & deforestation, will also be devised based on a dense time-series analysis approach using all available data from the 45-year long Landsat archive. Another objective of SAV-EO is to provide an advancement in the design of operational indicators for the assessment & monitoring of land degradation, within the Land Degradation Neutrality framework suggested by the UN, in order to achieve the target of the Sustainable Development Goals to combat desertification by the 2030.
The innovative algorithms, data & outputs will be made available open-access via a bespoke web-GIS platform & numerous dissemination & communication activities, thus providing an invaluable resource for scientists & policy makers alike.
Campo scientifico
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringsatellite technology
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringremote sensing
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencessoil sciencesland-based treatment
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringinformation engineeringtelecommunicationsradio technologyradar
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinatore
M15 6BH Manchester
Regno Unito