safeGUARDing biodivErsity aNd critical ecosystem services across sectors and scales
Overview
The global community and the EU have established several legal frameworks, strategies and action plans to protect nature and restore biodiversity. However, a key challenge in biodiversity governance lies in managing the trade-offs that arise across sectors and scales, for example, between conservation objectives and development priorities. Recognising the value of preserving ecosystems must extend across all economic sectors and policy areas. Therefore, it is essential to assess the synergies and trade-offs among multiple policy objectives and management decisions, and strengthen decision-making capacity through a user-oriented approach.
GUARDEN’s mission is to safeguard biodiversity and its contributions to people by bringing them to the forefront of policy and decision-making. This will be achieved through user-oriented Decision Support Applications (DSAs) and Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships. GUARDEN will employ Deep Learning, Earth Observation, and hybrid modelling to increase standardised and geo-localised biodiversity data, develop new-generation predictive models of biodiversity and ecosystem indicators under multiple pressures, and propose complementary ecological indicators for local management and policy. The approach will be tested in sectoral case studies involving end users and stakeholders, addressing critical cross-sectoral challenges. The DSAs will support a holistic understanding of biodiversity loss, assess alternative decisions, and support cross-sectoral, integrated policy-making.
Objectives
Activate Multi-stakeholder Partnerships for improved governance of biodiversity and ecosystem services monitoring.
Deliver open, scalable, secure and interoperable methods and tools to quantify and characterise change in biodiversity and related Ecosystem Services, and quantify impacts of the main direct drivers of change.
Deliver a set of ICT tools and tailored Decision Support Applications (DSAs) that transform scientific outputs to actionable knowledge, tailored to the needs of end users.
Demonstrate the benefits and showcase the added value of GUARDEN in diversified and heterogeneous Case Studies with the direct participation of end-users.
Accelerate the adoption of the GUARDEN DSAs by the wider community and ensure impact maximisation for the implementation of the European Green Deal and the biodiversity strategy, with emphasis on stakeholders and policy-makers involved in conservation and restoration measures.
eBOS Role in the Project
eBOS will lead the integration and configuration of the GUARDEN system, basing its work on previously defined architecture and requirements. Additionally, it will design and implement the graphical Human Machine Interface (HMI). eBOS will lead the development of a detailed testing plan for the successful delivery of innovative social innovation and, citizen and stakeholder engagement, adhering to stringent KPI requirements . This will include expanding upon and refining the initial planning developments. eBOS will prepare the framework for the evaluation of the project’s results, incorporating behavioural indications on the baseline conditions, relevant assumptions, workflow, checklists, templates, target KPIs, and the identification of key roles and interactions within the process. This evaluation will support the assessment of system performance, provide feedback for refinements and ultimately inform the final set of recommendations.
Apart from designing and maintaining the project’s website, eBOS will also contribute to the elaboration of GUARDEN dissemination and sustainability plans, and present project’s results to key associations through its membership (e.g., DAIRO, AIOTI, NGI, NESSI). Lastly, eBOS will act as the quality assurance and risk manager of the project.
Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
