Satellites have over -groomed arguments in Morocco – Diepresse.com
With satellite technology and artificial intelligence, a Boku Vienna research team wants to help maintain endangered forest areas in North Africa. The project should not only serve environmental protection, but also secure a life base of the local population.
Argan trees already existed when dinosaurs lived in the earth. In contrast to the gigantic animals, the trees have survived for many millions of years with the characteristic « snake skin bark » and the wide-ranging crowns. But the experts are worried: the last stocks are in the desert region of Southwest-Morocco, and they are not doing very well: the forests are pushing back. However, the fact that the trees used for the production of natural cosmetics products and food oil are less and less able to offer the local population an economic livelihood, to keep up increasing desert formation and to counteract climate change through their carbon storage capacity. A team from Boku Vienna tries to determine which factors play a role. It receives support from scientists from the Cadi-Ayad University in Marrakech.
Goats, sheep and firewood
« We try to develop methods to capture the condition of the forests and to identify the driving factors behind the deterioration in terms of state, » says Christoph Pucher from the Boku Institute for Forestry. « As a result, we want to derive strategies for securing and sustainable management of the arguments. »
A few weeks ago, Pucher and his team won initial insights during a visit on site. « Despite the different initial situations, the challenges in North Africa resemble those with whom we are confronted in Austria or have been in the past, » says the forest expert. « Our experiences can therefore contribute very significantly to the project success. »
So oversilitation seems to be one of the problems: animals – especially goats and sheep – eat the leaves, prevent the natural advancement of young trees and also cause a compression of the soil. Illegal firewood trade should also play a role. The researchers are not content with these findings. However, a complete inspection of the almost one million hectare area, which is recognized by the UNESCO as a biosphere reserve, would be too complex. The teams therefore use the latest satellite technology. You use data from the Sentinel 2 straw observation satellite, which flies every area of the planet at intervals of six days and creates high -resolution photos in different areas of the spectrum from a height of 780 kilometers.
Fruits, food oil and building materials
« This data is analyzed with different algorithms, machine learning and AI, » explains Pucher. In this way, he hopes to get an overview of the condition of the forests. Building on this, further measures against forest degradation and for rapid regeneration can then be developed. The importance of the trees for the local population should be taken into account. In addition to the fruits from which food oil is obtained, the argan wood is important as a building material. « The combination of ecosystem protection and sustainable management, taking local needs into account, ensures a livelihood for the Moroccan population in the long term, » says Pucher.
