About BioMONITec

BioMONITec

Biodiversity Monitoring Technologies
Test, Development and Transfer of disruptive engineering technologies into conservation practice

The BioMONITec project offers a collection of interactive online applications that is intended to assist conservationists to identify appropriate tools for biodiversity monitoring programmes. You can perform a Thematic search in the database in order to identify tools matching a given set of criteria, such as study object, study focus, tool purpose or tool characteristics. Alternatively, you can use a Keyword-based search. Further, the Configurator application facilitates efficient planning of biodiversity monitoring programmes. All three applications are linked below:

Keyword-based search

This is a search based on keywords associated with each tool. In addition to keywords, tool titles and short descriptions are analyzed semantically. If semantic search fails, an additional search is performed based on letter sequences regardless of their meaning.

Search by keywords

Thematic search

Thematic search allows you to consequently and interactively limit the list of suitable environmental monitoring tools by means of various criteria, such as study object, study focus, groups of monitored organisms, application range, tool category, ease of use etc.

Start thematic search

Configurator

Configurator is aimed at helping professionals to plan environmental monitoring in given conditions. It points out which aspects must be considered to achieve optimal results. Also, Configurator helps to identify environmental monitoring tools suitable for the task at hand.

Start configurator

More about the project

World protected areas represent diverse habitats that are home to specially adapted plants and animals.

The great number of protected areas that demand focus (more than 250,000 sites worldwide) will require a change from expert-based to automated biodiversity monitoring systems. Through the use of a research site in Carinthia, Austria, BioMONITec will serve as an instrumental component to test state-of-the-art and upcoming autonomous or semi-autonomous monitoring technologies.

New technologies are making the task easier to identify species composition in a given environment, aiding in the global challenge to preserve biodiversity. The three-year BioMONITec project will create a framework upon which all conservationists, researchers, and entrepreneurs may select the appropriate tools to document species diversity over time. An interactive decision tree will be generated to help stakeholders select appropriate techniques for the target organism or environment. An authoritative monitoring global guideline will be published to encourage consistent use of methodologies across sites, helping to harmonise data sets and allowing comparison of management techniques in different environments.

Findings from BioMONITec will be used to educate and train future generations of conservationists through academic programmes. Results will inform policy-makers of effective tools to document biodiversity, promoting their adoption on a wide scale.

Financing: Programme COIN, FFG Austrian Research Grant

HUMANITA Monitoring Catalogue

The HUMANITA project develops evidence-based, participatory tools that help regions monitor and assess how tourism affects conservation areas. Within the project, a range of monitoring methods has been tested to track the spatial and temporal distribution of visitors and to evaluate their impacts on erosion, vegetation, wildlife, and environmental pollution.

Following the IUCN's framework for monitoring biodiversity in protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures (Dalton et al., 2024), we defined the scope and priorities of monitoring programs across our pilot regions. The resulting HUMANITA monitoring strategy forms the foundation for all project activities. Approved methods have been integrated into the BioMoniTec toolbox, allowing conservation practitioners to identify suitable technologies for monitoring visitors and their environmental impacts.

In addition to the toolbox, the HUMANITA Monitoring Catalogue offers an overview of 8 selected monitoring activities implemented throughout the project.

HUMANITA toolbox Monitoring catalogue

HUMANITA: Human-Nature Interactions and Impacts of Tourist Activities on Protected Areas

This project is supported by the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Programme 2021-2027 with co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)