From survey to monitoring of landscapes and biodiversity

Symposium organised by:

Gabriela Hofer, Agroscope,  Zurich, Switzerland.
gabriela.hofer@art.admin.ch

Wendy Fjellstad, Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute, Ås, Norway
Wendy.Fjellstad@skogoglandskap.no

Summary

The symposium will explore lessons learned and solutions proposed for long-term monitoring of landscapes and biodiversity. It will include presentations and discussion relevant to planning, implementing and increasing the policy impact of monitoring schemes.

Description

There is growing demand from policy makers for reliable and timely information on the status and evolution of landscapes and biodiversity. Monitoring of landscapes and biodiversity poses specific requirements which are related to the repetition of the surveys in time. The spatial allocation of survey units (points, lines, polygons) has to be chosen, accounting for possible future changes; the size of the sample must be decided whilst the variability of the data is unknown; the programme must be able to distinguish real change from variability and uncertainty; and database construction and management must be carefully planned for the long term. Additional challenges include the selection and training of staff and the communication of results.

It would be relatively easy to propose solid and robust monitoring schemes if there were no financial restrictions. In real programmes, however, resources need to be optimized for a given budget. Landscape monitoring programmes are at the interface between science and society. They must yield data which are scientifically robust and reliable and can be used as a basis for administrators and policy makers for decision making. The symposium will be useful for people planning, implementing and using landscape and biodiversity monitoring.

Impact

The symposium will encourage interaction between landscape ecologists from different countries working on landscape monitoring. It will also include other disciplines to help improve landscape monitoring design & practice, including improved communication of results and greater impact on policy and decision making. An article will be submitted to the IALE bulletin.

Oral presentations

Title
Introduction
Gabriela Hofer, Agroscope,  Zurich, Switzerland....
Monitoring the rural landscape. Synthesis of the changes observed in Tuscany (Italy) in the last two centuries.
Authors: Antonio Santoro, Valentina Marinai,...
Survey and Monitoring for Conservation in Israel using EBONE approaches
Linda Olsvig-Whittaker, Science and Conservation...
Monitoring Farm-Scale Habitat Diversity: A practical methodology for scientists and stakeholders
D. Bailey1, Y. Ammari2, S. Angelova3, M....
Monitoring European farmland biodiversity: a cost and information optimisation exercise
I.R. Geijzendorffer 1,2,  F. Herzog3, P....
Optimal adaptive monitoring of species occupancy
Tabitha Graves1 Mevin Hooten12 Colorado State...
Discussion
Gabriela Hofer, Agroscope,  Zurich, Switzerland....
Satellite image fusion techniques applied to mapping Mediterranean woody vegetation
Salvador Arenas Castro1* Faculty of...
Monitoring small landscape elements as indication for quality of landscape and biodiveristy
Drs. Edwin Raap staffmember at the NGO for...
Challenges and choices for the future monitoring of agricultural landscapes in Norway.
Grete Stokstad, Wendy Fjellstad and Svein Olav...
Monitoring the landscape of the Northern lapwing
Wenche E. Dramstad, Norwegian Forest and...
Loss and fragmentation of native forest in Entre Rios, Argentina: impact of future scenarios on bird populations
N. C. Calamari1, G. Gavier-Pizarro2, A. Cerezo3,...
Testing functional groups for the monitoring of biodiversity and habitat quality
Rocco Labadessa1, 2, Graziana Antolino3, Mirella...
Discussion
Gabriela Hofer, Agroscope,  Zurich, Switzerland....