In the Alps, agriculture is strongly influenced by particular environmental conditions. Inter-annual and seasonal variability of climatic factors and the corresponding water availability and drought events are thereby of upmost importance. For an effective management of agricultural activities, a precise and systematic monitoring and comprehension of these environmental processes is therefore essential. The main goal of MONALISA 1.5 is therefore the advancement of monitoring and data analysis approaches for key environmental parameters and processes in the application field of agriculture. Since these processes occur on multiple spatial and temporal scales, information from a wide range of sensors such as imaging spectrometers and single-point monitoring stations need to be analysed and combined. Multi-scale monitoring in the context of MONALISA 1.5 means to work in scales from several 1000 km² (full Province of Bolzano) down to the scale of m² (e.g. a test plot). As key environmental parameters climate factors, vegetation status, soil properties, and energy fluxes are monitored.

MONALISA 1.5 is a strategic project that aims at analysing the multi-scale and multi-temporal implications of ecosystem monitoring by profiting from the experiences as well as from the large environmental database generated during the MONALISA project. Through MONALISA 1.5, on the one hand the consolidation of the in-house developed MODIS-based satellite products, of the UAV data processing chain, and the completion of the MONALISA database is supported. On the other hand, the planned scientific activities will deepen the understanding of the scale-dependency of essential environmental processes as well as of their monitoring approaches. Both achievements will enable the research group to profit from ready-to-use products as well as from knowledge on the scale-dependencies of specific ecosystem monitoring systems, in order to address future research challenges and to meet the demands of current research project calls.

Contact person: Sarah Asam