Swimming in a stream of information

p. 18-19

Résumé

The quantity of satellite imagery available, and the data it provides on biodiversity, is so substantial that new avenues of research are opening up, requiring specialists from the fields of biodiversity, remote sensor technology and artificial intelligence to work together. This proliferation of new knowledge represents a major opportunity for the global South, where biodiversity has been less thoroughly inventoried.


Texte intégral

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Vegetation survey, Cameroon.

© IRD/A.-E. Laques

1Since the 1970s, researchers have been monitoring biodiversity by analysing satellite images. The continuous diversification and multiplication of signals and sensors over the intervening years has opened up vast new possibilities in terms of detecting species, habitats and natural or man-made variation in natural environments. But this technical progress also poses a certain number of new challenges. The exponential flow of information and the growing power of artificial intelligence means that two formerly separate scientific disciplines now need to coexist: data analysis and data interpretation.

2The risk we now face is that the never-ending flow of data, the complexity of the processes and the problems inherent to data access, management and storage will overshadow the issue itself: how can we better understand the dynamics shaping landscapes and vegetation? The priority now must be to restructure research efforts to allow for a lasting dialogue and collaboration to emerge between biodiversity and data processing specialists.

3As they all seek to answer the same questions, these specialists must bring to bear the expertise of their respective disciplines, while adapting their methodologies to produce knowledge which is precise, pertinent and attuned to the demands of sustainable development. New methods of data analysis are already giving rise to new ways of approaching and understanding the plant kingdom.

4In fields which require the analysis of complex processes such as deforestation, carbon storage capacities and the dynamics reshaping agricultural and agro-forestry landscapes, new approaches are beginning to take shape: systematic cross-comparison of data from multiple sensors (optical, lidar and radar), each of which offers insight into a specific facet of the complex overall picture; establishing rigorous processes for generalisation, allowing information gathered in the field to be scaled up for mapping on a regional or even continental scale: this approach makes it possible to identify individual species (palm trees, for example) within different forest formations, while also studying the dynamics at play in major forests on a global scale.

••• New collaborations are needed between researchers in the fields of data processing, life sciences and the humanities in order to capitalise on this mass of data and develop a biodiversity mapping system which is innovative, robust and tailored to users’ needs •••

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Betsiboka Estuary, Madagascar. Image Sentinel 2, MSI sensor.

© Copernicus Sentinel Data 2019

5In the long term, the goal is to set up automated observation systems capable of measuring the impact of climate change and nature conservation policies, with reference to societal pressures.

Partners

University of Brasilia, Brazil
Federal Rural University of Amazonia, Brazil
Antananarivo University, Madagascar
National Centre for Environmental Research, Madagascar
University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon

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