Ecopotential is a four-year Horizon 2020 project funded by the EU. The project consortium comprises 47 European and international partners spanning research institutes, universities, national and European space agencies, international bodies and SME’s. The project responds to the EU’s call: “To make Earth Observation and Monitoring Data usable for ecosystem modelling and services.”

  • Ecopotential will use EO and in situ environmental monitoring data to characterise the current state and the ongoing and expected changes in biodiversity, ecosystem functions, processes and services.
    • Sentinel 2
    Sentinel 2 earth observation satellite, part of the Copernicus programme – ESA/ATG medialab
  • Ecopotential will develop a suite of data access systems and virtual laboratories, addressing data harmonisation, making the vast amount of available ecosystem data accessible to scientists, policy-makers, citizens, and other concerned stakeholders. It will create an Ecosystem Data Service related to the Copernicus space component (ECOPERNICUS) – previously known as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security), is the European Programme for the establishment of a European capacity for Earth Observation.
  • Ecopotential will provide a full picture of the state and temporal evolution of ecosystems in internationally recognised protected areas. The project study sites include UNESCO World Natural Heritage Sites, Biosphere Reserves, National Parks and important Natura 2000 sites. Additionally, two Large Marine Ecosystems (LME) in the Mediterranean and Caribbean are included. These sites cover mountain, arid/semi-arid and coastal/marine ecosystems in a range of biogeographic regions.
  • Ecopotential will address cross-scale ecological interactions and landscape-ecosystem dynamics at regional to continental scales, using geostatistical methods and the emerging novel approaches in Macrosystem Ecology, which is addressing long-term and large-scale ecological challenges.
  • Ecopotential will define the needs of future Protected Areas, and improve evidence-based environmental policy making.
  • Ecopotential will develop capacity building at all levels through training courses and user take up of EO and monitoring data services and ecosystem models. Citizen science activities in local Protected Area sites will actively involve rangers, wardens and local citizens in collecting data about natural resources.
  • All data and model results will be made available on common and open platforms, coherent with the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) data sharing principles.

You can find out more about this project by viewing and downloading this brochure.