Earth Observation in support of EU policies for biodiversity - A deep-dive assessment of the Knowledge Centre on Earth Observation

This report describes the results from a deep dive assessment of the Knowledge Centre on Earth Observation (KCEO) exploring the use of Earth Observation (EO) products and services to support EU biodiversity policies. EU policy needs in the biodiversity domain are analysed with the ambition to verify how and to what extent existing EO products and services meet these needs, highlight existing gaps and provide recommendations on future evolution. The spatial resolution of Copernicus products in most cases matches the user requirements. Improvements are suggested on more regular and frequent updates of products, as well as on products latency. The length of time series and their consistency over time are considered not always adequate. Uncertainty and accuracy of EO products are key but not addressed in the deep dive. Other areas of improvement are related to the thematic detail: existing land cover maps are not sufficient for many biodiversity applications, and this is as well applicable to land use and sea use products. There is a need to map ecosystem types further refining more aggregated land cover classes, to drive the assessment of habitats and ecosystems condition. In this respect, although satellite EO can already offer significant and valuable datasets to support biodiversity related policies, for the full exploitation of available technology, the availability of ground-based and more broadly in-situ data both on land and in marine and freshwater environments, is essential and should be enhanced.