What is BioSCape?

BioSCape is a once-off airborne and field campaign that will collect baseline data, deepening our understanding of the drivers and mechanisms of ecological change. Furthermore, we will synthesize biodiversity assessments with regional climate, disturbance, post-fire recovery, freshwater provisioning, and other ecosystem services in the GCFR. Our scientific aims require an integrated study design that personalizes targeted field-based, remote sensing and modeling studies according to the scale and information needed to support decision-making. The campaign is funded by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in collaboration with SANSA (South African National Space Agency). 

We hope to build a lasting legacy of research between the United States and South Africa. It all starts with expanding the knowledge base, distributing key datasets, developing support products for decision-making and fostering new partnerships. BioSCape has been carefully co-designed by SA and US-based investigators from all levels and types of institutions. Moreover, BioSCape has allocated resources to enrich multi-stakeholder collaboration between practitioners (on-ground users, decision-makers and policy-makers in SA) and BioSCape scientists to close the research-practice gap in GIS and remote sensing.  

Why is BioSCape important?

The BioSCape project is the first of its kind in deploying NASA technology to assess Earth’s biodiversity. The primary objective is to understand the structure, function, and composition of a region’s ecosystems—to learn how and why they change in time and space. BioSCape centers around three themes of understanding:

1) the distribution and abundance of biodiversity

2) the role of biodiversity in ecosystem function

3) the impacts of biodiversity change on ecosystem services

For more information about BioSCape, read Our Story.