On 5 February 2025, the kick-off meeting of the Interreg MAP-REZIA project was held in Bormio. The project is dedicated to strengthening cross-border biodiversity management in the protected areas of the Italian-Swiss border zones, in particular the Stelvio and Swiss National Parks and the Val Monastero. The project is financed by the Interreg VI Italy-Switzerland Programme 2021-2027.
The project focuses on characterising forest and grassland ecosystems using remote sensing data and mapping populations of large herbivores and their impact on biodiversity. Among its objectives, MAP-Rezia aims to assess future forest scenarios under climate change, considering factors such as ungulate pressure, natural disturbances and management decisions, and to integrate spatial data for a more effective cross-border conservation strategy.
Project partner, AVT Airborne Sensing Italia will be responsible for the acquisition of hyperspectral images and LiDAR data from aircraft and drone and their processing. Hyperspectral remote sensing will make it possible to examine the composition and distribution of plant species in forests and grasslands, define their distinctive features, and use the specificity of spectral signatures for accurate mapping of biological diversity.
LiDAR data will instead be used to analyse the geometric component of forest habitats (e.g. plant structure, volume of dead wood), which is linked to biodiversity. The results obtained will be distributed to the project partners (ERSAF - Stelvio Park Directorate, EURAC - Institute for the Alpine Environment, Free University of Bozen/Bolzano, Swiss National Park) and combined with in situ data to create advanced indicators and metrics for delineating the characteristics of plant ecosystems to assess biodiversity.
The Interreg VI-A Italy-Switzerland Program has the main objective of encouraging investments in the territory within the scope of 4 strategic priorities and the specific Interreg objective:
- A smarter and more competitive Europe
- A greener Europe
- A more connected Europe
- A more social and inclusive Europe
- Better governance of cooperation
The project is co-financed by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund, the Italian State, the Revolving Fund, the Swiss Confederation and the Cantons as part of the Interreg VI-A Italy-Switzerland Cooperation Program - CUP E61G24000230007.
AVT-ASI is the Italian branch of the AVT Group, which has decades of experience in aerophotogrammetric survey services from aircraft, helicopter and drone, aerial and terrestrial photogrammetry, 3D modeling, remote sensing, and data classification, and has pilots, aircraft operators and ground staff with specific experience in conducting aerial surveys in Europe with different types of sensors, including optical sensors (multispectral, thermal and hyperspectral) and LiDAR sensors; also employs remote sensing experts to process the acquired images and transform them into usable data for the project partners.
For info: https://avt-as.eu/
