Using satellites and AI to map habitats
This three-year project - made possible thanks to players of People's Postcode Lottery - sees the University of Surrey and Surrey Wildlife Trust working in partnership with Buglife and the Painshill Park Trust. The team has enlisted the help of the public to inform their work in the newly emerging field of Earth Observation – combining satellite technology and artificial intelligence – to monitor and improve wildlife habitats.
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Project updates
Watch our Space4Nature videos to learn more about the project.
Training Volunteers
Surrey Wildlife Trust's Citizen Science Officer Daniel Banks trains a group of volunteers on mapping a heathland site.
Mapping using Machine Learning
Professor Richard Murphy and Dr Ana Andries demonstrate how machine learning, mapping and very high resolution satellite imagery are used to support the project.
Mapping Habitat on Puttenham Common
Citizen Science Officer Daniel Banks and Research and Monitoring Manager Ben Siggery are joined by Molly Biddell from the Hampton Estate. Along with a group of volunteers, they map the habitat on a section of heathland on Puttenham Common.
Palaeoecology Research at Chobham Common
How wildlife rich should Surrey be in the absence of contemporary human influence? For his PhD, Ben Siggery is carrying out palaeoecological research (the study of interactions between organisms & their environment through time) to inform our habitat restoration targets, alongside Space4Nature satellite technology to track progress.
B-Lines
"B-Lines are a series of ‘insect pathways’ running through our countryside and towns, along which we are restoring and creating a series of wildflower-rich habitat stepping stones." - Buglife UK
Buglife’s B-Lines initiative is the world’s largest co-ordinated solution to habitat fragmentation and loss. Composed of mapped 3km wide belts joining the best remaining areas for nature across the UK, Buglife aims to fill these B-Lines with permanent wildflower-rich habitat to reconnect our landscapes for wildlife.
The Space4Nature project is the first project to begin reconnecting Surrey’s B-Line, with over 30 hectares of wildflower-rich habitat to be delivered as part of the project. The satellite mapping technology Space4Nature is developing will address one of the foremost challenges Buglife face by providing a complete picture of habitats at a landscape scale.
News & Blogs
Keep up to date with the latest project news and developments, including blogs from Project Manager Andrew Jamieson and Space4Nature PhD student Ben Siggery.
Bridging the divide
A research project is uniting the academic and the practical
Satellites, AI... and hand lenses
As the pioneering Space4Nature project reaches its halfway point, we check in with some of its key contributors.
A year in space…for nature!
Emily Burden has completed a 12-month internship working on our Space4Nature project.
Hampton Estate & Space4Nature team up to assess the state of nature on Puttenham Common
Satellite imagery, Artificial Intelligence and citizen science will complement 100-year plan to restore nationally important heathland…
Heather - a heathland hero
As we develop the satellite and AI-based tools that will drive the success of the Space4Nature project, our staff and volunteers are…
Probing for answers: what Chobham’s mud could tell us about environmental change
As part of the Space4Nature project, SWT’s GIS, Research and Monitoring manager Ben Siggery is completing a PhD which will seek to…
