Editorial
Earth observation for habitat mapping and biodiversity monitoring

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Safeguarding biodiversity: a case for ‘glocalized’ information

Biodiversity – the variety of life forms and our “natural capital and life-insurance” (European Commission, 2011) – is on decline (Isbell, 2010, Trochet and Schmeller, 2013), with consequences on ecosystem function and stability, and ultimately human well-being (Naeem et al., 2009). Since 1992, the International Convention on Biological Diversity, short CBD, has bundled the United Nations’ joint effort to halt or at least lower the accelerated loss of biodiversity, but indeed it remains one of

Habitats – Earth observable spatial entities

Habitats are fractal spatial entities of the biophysical environment whose definition depends on the scale at which they are considered (Blondel, 1979). In other words, habitats are physical expressions of biodiversity, covering a certain area with specific compositions and spatial features. The areal extent and the scaled appearance make them ‘Earth observable’ (Bunce et al., 2008, Kosmidou et al., 2014, Lang et al., 2013a). Habitats are not just observable in existence or extent, but also

From experimental research to operational solutions

Within the policy framework for EO-based biodiversity monitoring sketched above, we focus on some specific requirements related to the EU 2020 Biodiversity strategy (Commission 2011). By adopting the global Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 issued at the Tenth Conference of the Parties (CoP10), the EU 2020 biodiversity strategy has strengthened its implementing power as compared to the previous 2010 strategy (Lang et al., 2013a). A set of verifiable goals are listed, which are closely

This Special Issue: extending satellite Earth observation capacities in habitat mapping and biodiversity monitoring

This Special Issue on Earth observation for habitat mapping and biodiversity monitoring addresses these challenges by presenting original papers on advanced technological or scientific achievements that clearly highlight the potential of EO data and related technologies in support of biodiversity, ecosystem and habitat monitoring. The Call for Papers followed two dedicated events in July and September 2013, jointly organized by the two complementary EU projects MS.MONINA and BIO_SOS soliciting

Outlook: towards new horizons?

Monitoring biodiversity at the level of habitats and landscapes is becoming widespread in the world as countries establish international and national habitat monitoring rules and systems. For this purpose, scientific experts users and practitioners require (at different institutional and scale levels) multi-temporal and multi-scale (including the finest scale possible) products and modelling frameworks for monitoring the impact that human induced pressures may have on biodiversity. Such

Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community‘s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreements No. 263479 (MS.MONINA) coordinated by Stefan Lang, University of Salzburg-Austria, and No. 263435 (BIO_SOS) coordinated by Palma Blonda, CNR_ISSIA, Bari-Italy. We want to thank all reviewers for their efforts as well as all the JAG editorial office for their invaluable support.

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