The Leibniz Institute for Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) is a spatial science research institution of the Leibniz Association. It develops scientific bases for the sustainable development of cities and regions in a national and international context. In addition to landscape change and management, resource efficiency of settlement structures, and environmental risks in urban and regional development, the IOER is intensively involved in monitoring settlement and open space development. The focus is on an automated survey, monitoring, analysis, visualization, and evaluation procedures for the spatial description of land use structures (settlement and open space), building stock and transport infrastructure, and their development.

Within DINA, the IOER is responsible for the entire geodata collection and analysis (work package 1). After collecting all relevant geodata for DINA, the nature reserves of Germany are analyzed and evaluated. For the selection of suitable sites for the installation of malaise traps, a land-use classification, the calculation of landscape indicators within the nature reserves and in their surroundings, and the compilation of descriptive statistics were initially carried out. At a later stage, spatial GIS-based analysis of all nature conservation areas in Germany, including a multi-criteria description of these areas, is carried out. This analysis will be used to investigate the relationship between the insect population, protected area characteristics, and the intensity of agricultural use in the surrounding area. The current investigations within the project show that insects caught in selected protected areas are contaminated with up to 16 different pesticides on average. Both conventionally farmed arable land in the nature reserve and in its surroundings contribute to the insect pesticide load in the reserve. Based on the hypothesis that ecological management of arable land in and around protected areas minimises insect contamination, spatial analysis is to be carried out to quantify the influence of ecological arable management on protected areas. This requires anonymised geodata showing which arable land is managed organically.

 

Finally, all relevant DINA results of the 21 case study areas and spatial analysis results for all nature conservation areas will be visualised in a story map.