Rijkswaterstaat, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, TNO, and RIVM join forces to protect biodiversity with an initiative for automated biodiversity monitoring (ABM).
ABM provides Rijkswaterstaat with valuable insights to improve road safety and is a crucial step to counteract biodiversity loss, including biodiversity.
Counteracting Biodiversity Loss
Current biodiversity monitoring is insufficient because measurements are not conducted uniformly across the Netherlands and not frequent enough to track changes immediately.
Governments, businesses, and society urgently need clear information about the current state of nature to effectively implement policies for climate change and to counter biodiversity loss. For this reason, the Automated Biodiversity Monitoring (ABM) initiative was launched.
Director of Accessibility and Network Quality at Rijkswaterstaat, Ingeborg Absil, is enthusiastic about the collaboration: ‘Rijkswaterstaat is known as a manager of asphalt but also manages a lot of nature, including over 18,000 hectares of verges along the national road network.’
‘ABM provides valuable data on developments that may affect road safety. I am convinced that where necessary, we can better align nature development and protection with keeping our country safe and accessible.’
Scalable System
What makes the ABM initiative special is that it is a scalable system that can be deployed by various parties throughout the Netherlands, ranging from local governments to businesses. The goal is to support the entire ‘BV NL’ (the Dutch business community and society).
The standardized approach is also notable. This ensures that data is of high quality and comparable, providing a reliable and complete picture of our nature for all users.
The ABM initiative runs from 2026 to 2030 and focuses on creating an infrastructure for automated biodiversity monitoring. Funding comes from the Applied Research Facilities (FTO) subsidy of the Dutch government amounting to 19.4 million euros.
The infrastructure will use smart technologies such as sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), and DNA techniques to measure biodiversity quickly and on a large scale. This offers an efficient and cost-effective way to measure the state of nature at national, regional, and local levels.
TNO will handle the technical development of the field stations (sensors), and RIVM and Rijkswaterstaat will place these stations in their measurement networks. Naturalis will be responsible for the technology and system to which these stations will connect.
