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New EU project will standardise access to biodiversity data to empower policymakers
The magnitude and dynamics of the global biodiversity crisis are hard to quantify and require rapid, reliable and repeatable biodiversity monitoring data which decision makers can use to evaluate policy options. Such information—from local to global level and within timescales relevant to policy—calls for improved integration of data on biodiversity from different sources such as museums, herbaria, remote sensing, citizen scientists and researchers.
The B-Cubed project (Biodiversity Building Blocks for policy)—that started in March 2023—will address this challenge by transforming biodiversity monitoring from a disconnected, labor-intensive activity into an agile and responsive process, tailored to the needs of decision-makers. The project consortium is composed of 13 partner organizations from 10 countries and is coordinated by Meise Botanic Garden.
B-Cubed will work closely with existing European and international biodiversity initiatives to identify and address policy needs. It will leverage the concept of data cubes to standardize access to biodiversity data using the Essential Biodiversity Variables framework.
In conjunction with other environmental data and scenarios, these cubes will be the basis for models and indicators of past, current and future biodiversity. These state-of-the-art prediction models will be accessible to users in real-time and on-demand in a cloud computing environment, delivering accurate, reliable and understandable information on biodiversity status and change.
The project will ensure its results can be cloned, reused and updated by creating exemplar automated workflows for modeling using biodiversity data cubes and for the calculation of change indicators. To ensure its tools meet users' needs and effectively capture relevant policy aspects of biodiversity change, B-Cubed will include four case studies. These will cover different locations varying in geographic extent, biodiversity richness and data availability.
The project launched its activities with a Kick-off meeting in Brussels on 13 and 14 March 2023.
"This is a really exciting opportunity to take methods, data and infrastructure and combine it in ways that will really help in resolving the biodiversity crisis," says Dr. Quentin Groom (Meise Botanic Garden), B-Cubed's coordinator.
Provided by Pensoft Publishers
