The core business of our team is spatial ecological modelling and monitoring. Our ambition in model development is to be among the international trendsetters in the field of spatial ecological modelling. We think that a key to success in modelling is to do both development and application of the models in one team. Therefore our programmers are not only software engineers but they also have an ecological background. This enables us to control the whole process of model application: from the translation of a practical problem in model terms to the adaptation and running of the model, and the interpretation of its output in the stakeholder's terms. Our philosophy allows us to respond quickly to constantly changing demands, driven by e.g. environmental issues and political priorities. In general, our models yield ecological standards that are used in e.g. spatial planning and environmental policy.
Ecological models have a strong need for data. Also in this field we think it is an advantage to have everything in one hand, and we aim at collecting at least part of these data ourselves. Besides we have long-term relations with other monitoring organizations. Ideally there is an interaction between modelling and monitoring: a model will tell what is a system's most sensitive component (and therefore, the one that has to be monitored first), and the resulting data can be used for model calibration and validation.
Besides modelling and monitoring, we are active in a number of other fields that generate model applications or monitoring projects. These fields are: ecohydrology, population dynamics and recreation research. Projects acquired in these fields yield the necessary input for ongoing model development.
The team's focus is on fundamental and applied research in the following areas:
Modelling - main topics are:
-
animal population viability, based on metapopulation theory
-
plant and animal dispersal
-
vegetation succession
-
relation between flora and fauna and habitat factors (soil, hydrology, infrastructure, ect.)
-
recreation in natural areas
Monitoring - main topics are:
-
monitoirng of abiotic condition for vegetation
-
monitoring of effects of human interference on vegetation
-
development of (spatial) monitoring methodology
Problems tackled:
-
effects of climate change
-
effects of atmospheric quality, e.g. nitrogen load, acidification
-
effects of infrastructure
-
long-term ecological effects of economic scenarios
-
effects of landscape fragmentation
-
planning of ecological corridors
-
ecohydrology; ecological effects of water management scenarios
-
population dynamics
-
recreation: factors affecting recreation intensity; ecological effects of recreation; balancing ecological and recreation goals
Models