GlobDiversity is the first large-scale project explicitly designed to develop and engineer RS-enabled EBVs. This project initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA) supports the efforts of the Convention on Biological Diversity CBD, Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services IPBES, Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network GEO-BON, among others, to build a global knowledge of biological diversity of terrestrial ecosystems based on Earth Observation data complementary to all in-situ monitoring and of relevance for society.
Habitat loss and fragmentation are and will continue to be one of the major threats to biodiversity (Hanski, 2011; Pereira et al., 2010). Natural habitats in most parts of the world continue to decline in extent and integrity, causing increased fragmentation and loss of sustainable species populations, although there has been significant progress to reduce this trend in some regions and habitats. Not only areas of natural habitats will be lost, but the remaining habitats will become smaller and more isolated (Fahrig, 2003; Opdam, 1991). Construction of transport infrastructure through natural landscapes will also contribute to a further fragmented landscape, especially with a large impact for for ground dwelling species (Forman & Alexander, 1998; Jaeger, 2000). Reducing the rate of habitat loss and fragmentation, and eventually halting it, is essential to protect biodiversity and to maintain the ecosystem services vital to human wellbeing (Aichi Targets). Fragmentation, next to ecosystem distribution, land cover and vegetation height are strongly related to the Essential Biodiversity Variable ‘Ecosystem structure’ or habitat structure (Pereira et al. 2013; Skidmore et al., 2015). Monitoring EBV Ecosystem structure can be supported by remote sensing by amongst others the collection of information on the spatial distribution of habitats and associated land cover and how fragmented these targeted areas are and in the end what it does mean for the species occurring in those habitats. For many species-groups fragmentation can have a large impact on the persistence of the group (Nilsson, Reidy, Dynesius, & Revenga, 2005; Ouborg, 1993; Schipper et al., 2008; Thomas & Hanski, 1997; Villard, Trzcinski, & Merriam, 1999).
First Part of the Fragmentation Algorithm.
Wageningen University and Research (WUR) - Rene Jochem
German Areospace Center (DLR) - Moritz Travis Hof, Luca Spataro