SPACE 4 ENVIRONMENT (LU)
Capturing the status and trends of biodiversity and ecosystem services in urban landscapes represents an important part of understanding whether a metropolitan area is developing in a sustainable manner. The City Biodiversity Index (CBI) was developed by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as a tool to evaluate the state of biodiversity in cities and provide further insights to improve conservation efforts in urban areas. It consists of 23 indicators designed to help cities monitor their progress in implementing conservation efforts and their success in halting the loss of biodiversity as formulated in the Aichi biodiversity targets of the CBD.
The EO4CBI project assessed how satellite-based data, in combination with appropriate in-situ and ancillary data, can produce innovative and cost-effective solutions to the implementation of the four CBI indicators:
– CBI indicator 1 on “Proportion of natural areas in city”;
– CBI indicator 2 on “Connectivity measures and ecological networks to counter fragmentation”;
– CBI indicator 11 on “Regulation of quantity of water”;
– CBI indicator 12 on “Climate regulation: carbon storage and cooling effect of water”.
The products were validated on 10 cities (Addis Ababa, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Edmonton, Hamilton, Lisbon, Portland, Southern Luxembourg, Stockholm and Tallinn).