Ref.: LIFEWATCH-2019-UMA-01
The “ENVIRONMENT, BIODIVERSITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE LABORATORY (EnBiC2-Lab)” is a project co-financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation through FEDER Funds from the Operational Program Pluriregional of Spain 2014-2020.
This proposal addresses the challenge of creating a set of databases, tools and a Virtual Research Environment (VRE) to monitor and analyze the effects of Climate Change (CC) in a comprehensive manner, through the integration of measurements and results from five different perspectives: water, air, soil, fauna and flora. Thus, thanks to this proposal, new databases will be captured and made available to the LifeWatch community. of the previous areas, as well as a set of electronic services based on these new databases. In addition, a VRE (Virtual Research Environment) will be created that through supercomputing, Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Datawill integrate the above information to develop new ways of understanding and analyzing the dynamics and effects of CC.
Ministry of Science and Innovation
Project co-financing entity
UMA
Participating entities
Andalusian project
Scope of action
Natural spaces
Three protected natural areas showing distinctive Mediterranean climate patterns throughout southern Spain have been selected as field observatories. These are (from west (W) to east (E)): Parque Natural de los Alcornocales (province of Cádiz), Sierra de las Nieves Natural Reserve (Málaga) and Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park (Almería).
This project has two main pillars: the study of the water cycle in these three natural spaces, and the development of software tools to support the study of environmental problems and climate change.
Zone selection
These three Andalusian areas represent not only great environmental values, but also transitional climatic regions, from W to E and the wetter region (1500 mm, in the Natural Park of los Alcornocales) to the almost driest in Spain (200 mm, in the Cabo de Gata and Níjar Natural Park).
The selection of the pilot sites has been carried out using different criteria, prioritizing the uniqueness of biodiversity, but also considering the wide variety of existing geological (distinctive rock formations) and hydrogeological characteristics and types of aquifers (highly permeable to practically impermeable geological formations).
Miocene sandstones
Alcornocales Natural Park
Triassic carbonate rocks + ultramafic formations
Sierra de las Nieves Natural Park
Miocene sedimentary volcano
Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park
Rock formations and aquifers
In this last sense, in the Alcornocales Natural Park there are vast outcrops of Miocene sandstone formations, with variable permeability and aquifer potential. In the Sierra de las Nieves Natural Reserve, important types of aquifers coexist. , such as those formed by carbonate rocks from the Triassic, but also unique ultramafic geological formations with little-studied aquifer properties and great geoheritage and biodiversity wealth. The easternmost site, the Cabo de Gata and Níjar Natural Park, comprises a volcano-sedimentary complex of the Miocene, well studied from a geological and biological point of view, but little understood from the perspective of groundwater and aquifers.
Scientific proposal
In the scientific field, five areas of interest have been analyzed: water, air, fauna, flora and soil
Water
Contribute to the knowledge and sustainable management of Andalusian aquifers based on hydrological and hydrogeological information, in order to precisely know their water behavior and available water resources, determine the interaction between surface and groundwater with dependent ecosystems and quantify all the elements that intervene in their balance, including underground inputs and outputs.
Air
Establish an aerobiological surveillance network to detect changes in the flowering phenology of different species through the presence of their pollen grains in the atmosphere. Carry out statistical studies on the relationship between pollen concentrations and different meteorological parameters. Generate the necessary data to reveal the trends followed over time by the different taxa as a consequence of global warming, and their role in the increase in pollen allergies. Provide an information service that can be used. for the prevention of pollinosis.
Fauna
Provide reliable and up-to-date data sets on the recent increase in the distribution of African species that are arriving in southern Europe due to the opportunity provided by climate change.
Flora
Habitat monitoring (at the species and plant community level) in suitable fragile environments such as endemic spruce forests, high mountains, edaphoxeric substrates, arid areas. Including functional traits of plants that allow qualitative evaluation and quantitative analysis of ecosystem services.
Floor
Determine the indicator properties of soil quality and determine soil degradation/desertification processes. Determine soil moisture patterns under different components of the soil surface along a Mediterranean rainfall gradient. Create a library of spectral signatures and models using field spectroradiometry in different Mediterranean environments and climatic conditions.
Technological proposal
From a technological point of view, not only software development has been addressed, but also the problems of the equipment required for these data analysis processes. In this context, the project has allowed us to expand the capabilities of the supercomputing service of the University of Malaga, in addition to offering an environment for developing solutions based on Big Data technologies. In addition, new IoT devices have been developed to support the collection of certain environmental data.
To carry out interdisciplinary projects of this magnitude it is necessary to store and analyze large amounts of data with the help of supercomputing, both for the development of new tools as well as for the calculations that must be carried out, generating models that allow predicting in specific areas the consequences of climate change from different areas, which could help to design more effective resolution strategies.
An important role in the project, especially in storage and analysis tasks, will be played by the Supercomputing and Bioinnovation Center (SCBIUMA), which is a reference center in supercomputing with thirteen years of accumulated experience. The Picasso supercomputer is the fundamental infrastructure of the “Andalusian Network Platform for Technological Support in Genomics, Proteomics and Bioinformatics” (PAB). The SCBI is also part of the map of ICT located in Andalusia, called ICTS RES Picasso, being the only Andalusian node of the Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES).
To get the most out of the data and infrastructure obtained throughout the project, new advances have been made in information processing:
Launching the system previously developed by the University of Malaga (TITAN) for the management of data analysis workflows.
Construction of specific data analysis workflows for the environmental problems under study of the project.
Development of more than 150 software components for all phases of data life: data collection, efficient data storage, statistical analysis, analysis using artificial intelligence techniques and visualization of results.
Development of a Big Data laboratory to allow the construction of new workflows taking advantage of the software components developed to address new problems.
Success story
The KHAOS research group of the University of Malaga, which is part of the “Jose María Troya Linero” Institute of Software Technology and Engineering, has developed a tool capable of classifying forest types using satellite images , in collaboration with the European Topic Center of the UMA (ETC-UMA) which works for the European Environment Agency (EEA).
Challenge
In this work we set ourselves the challenge of developing a methodology that facilitates the classification of land cover in large areas such as the Mediterranean basin, in addition to creating forest maps at the species level. In this context, we find ourselves with the need to analyze a large amount of satellite images. The large amount of raw satellite image data is accompanied by major problems that require the use of solutions based on Big Data.
The Mediterranean basin
In our case, the Mediterranean basin is covered by more than 450 Sentinel-2 mosaics (European satellite) and around 1200 ASTER mosaics (NASA satellite). Furthermore, in order to classify the different land uses It has been necessary to analyze three seasons to take into account the changes that occur in the forests throughout the year (a phenomenon known as 'phenology') depending on the type of tree species.
AI prediction model
Using Artificial Intelligence techniques, a model has been created that, based on annotations of forest areas for which their typology is known, can predict the type of forest in areas for which no information is available In this way, using data from a small percentage of the total territory of the Mediterranean basin, it has been possible to classify the forests of the entire basin (which includes 19 countries). In this way it will be possible to have annually updated maps that allow studying not only the effects of climate change, but also the effects of human activity on these forests, the effectiveness of forestry policies or their recovery capacity after fires, which would allow administrations to make decisions based on the data for the conservation and restoration of our natural spaces.
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