Solving the Benthic Vegetation
issue - RS, Ecology, Evolution and IAS
Remote Sensing has an immense potential to untangle and
understand our ecosystems, yet this potential is quite far from being realized.
Benthic vegetation within the littorale zone is a good example of that.
Prins has joined the EU Biodiversa+ project
Climate Invasives that want to explain and show the drivers
behind the colonization of marine Alien Invasive Species. Prins is WP leader and
by other things contributes to develop and implement benthic mapping based upon
Sentinel2/Landsat data.
Studying submerged vegetation via remote sensing data adds
another layer of complexity in spectroscopy compared to terrestrial applications
– for example dealing with non-linear light intensities with increasing water
depth. Therefore, firm calibration of data is the key to success.
Another issue that is limited touched upon is the
functional properties and evolutionary aspects of the marine ecosystem. Recent
scientific research for European Space Agency (ESA)
carried out by Prins has just open a door to a novel understating of how
evolution and ecosystems functions are linked together. Following this path
Prins has developed a novel index for understanding and assessing submerged
vegetation. The foundation of this satellite index is thoughts about the
evolution of life. Preliminary investigations indicates that this Benthic
Vegetation Index (BVI) may surpass earlier efforts to produce indices or mapping
of submerged vegetation.
Example of BVI covering Limfjorden (DK)
The index has been developed within the Climate Invasive
project that has a core area of Limfjorden (DK) and is moreover tested on the
west coast of Sweden – verification of the index as well development of Marine
RS application will continue until mid 2025.
Example of bentich mapping
based upon Sentinel 2 data AI modelling (left) and an AIS on the right.
Client: EU
Funding: InnovationFund (DK), EU and Prins (25%)
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