EU BON - Building the European Biodiversity Observation Network
 

Sustainable governance of our biological resources demands reliable scientific knowledge to be accessible and applicable to the needs of society.

The fact that current biodiversity observation systems and environmental datasets are unbalanced in coverage and not well integrated brings the need of a new system which will facilitate access to this knowledge and will effectively improve the work in the field of biodiversity observation in general.

In light of the new Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), such a network and approach are imperative for attaining efficient processes of data collation, analysis and provisioning to stakeholders.

A system that facilitates open access to taxonomic data is essential because it will allow a sustainable provision of high quality data to partners and users, including e-science infrastructure projects as well as global initiatives on biodiversity informatics.

EU BON proposes an innovative approach in terms of integration of biodiversity information system from on-ground to remote sensing data, for addressing policy and information needs in a timely and customized way.

The project will reassure integration between social networks of science and policy and technological networks of interoperating IT infrastructures. This will enable a stable new open-access platform for sharing biodiversity data and tools to be created.

EU BON’s 31 partners from 18 countries are members of networks of biodiversity data-holders, monitoring organisations, and leading scientific institutions.

EU BON will build on existing components, in particular GBIF, LifeWatch infrastructures, and national biodiversity data centres.

 

Objective

The main objective of EU BON is to build a substantial part of the Group on Earth Observation’s Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON). 

A key feature of EU BON will be the delivery of near-real-time relevant data – both from on-ground observation and remote sensing – to the various stakeholders and end users ranging from local to global levels. 
 

Doing so will require:

• Тhe establishment and adoption of new data standards and integration techniques;
   
• Harmonized data collection;
   
• The development of new approaches and strategies for future biodiversity monitoring and assessment.

 

We will develop and provide practical indicators and interpretation tools for endusers from, e.g., agriculture to nature conservation.

EU BON will support national and international authorities, as well as private stakeholders and the general public with integrated and scientifically sound biodiversity data analyses.
The project intends to develop a full-scale model for a durable mechanism for higher level integration of biodiversity information providers and users through a network of networks approach scalable from local to global biodiversity observation systems.
 

EU BON proposes two related networking levels:

1. A science-based social network, comprising and linking the communities of practice engaged in collecting, managing, analyzing, and utilizing biodiversity observations and data;
    
2.  A  technological network of interoperating IT infrastructures and systems that store and distribute information of all kinds held by multiple organisations and partners, and to provide a platform for data analysis and interpretation.
   
    

For resource efficiency, the establishment of the GEO biodiversity information network will build on existing infrastructures and efforts to integrate monitoring schemes and their data across Europe and internationally.

In doing that, EU BON will have the following specific objectives:

• Advancing the technological/informatics infrastructures for GEO BON, by moving existing biodiversity networks towards standards-based, service-oriented approaches and cloud computing, enabling full interoperability through the GEOSS Common Infrastructure;
   
• Improving the range and quality of the methods and tools for assessment, analysis, and visualization of biodiversity and ecosystem information, particularly focussing on predictive modelling, identification of drivers of change, and biodiversity indicators, and to support priority setting.

Project duration: December 2012 - May 2017