Towards a wider uptake of remote sensing in Natura 2000 monitoring: Streamlining remote sensing products with users' needs and expectations

The implementation of the Habitats Directive (Hab-Dir) in 1992 has been a major step towards a more harmonized approach to nature conservation in the European Union (EU). Member states granted legal protection to habitats and species listed by the HabDir, and designated areas of high nature value as Natura 2000 sites. But legal designation and protection is not enough: sites need to be managed appropriately, and the impacts of environmental pressures working on them require careful monitoring. Furthermore, member states need to monitor the conservation status of habitats and species on their entire territory, and report this to the EU on a six-yearly basis. These reports then serve as input for an assessment at the European scale, aiding the EU to follow up on achievements of the HabDir, and to adapt policy where needed. As a result, this shift towards a more systematic and knowledge-driven approach to biodiversity policy in the EU led to extensive and diverse data needs, at three different scale levels (EU, member state, and protected site) and involving many stakeholders. This can no longer be met by field work alone. Remote sensing image analysis has been demonstrated to be a powerful tool to assist in fulfilling the growing data needs, yet its use in operational Natura 2000 monitoring is still limited. We argue that a successful remote sensing based service for habitat monitoring in the Natura 2000 context should be: (1) multi-scale, (2) versatile, (3) user-friendly, and (4) cost-efficient. The recently started FP7-SPACE project MS. MONINA intends to set the basis for such a service, complying with pan-European efforts for data harmonization and exchange (GMES, INSPIRE, SEIS), and relying on a strong user involvement.