Deforestation is a huge threat to the world’s forests: an estimated land area equivalent to 48 football fields is lost every minute.

Researchers from the National Centre for Earth Observation at the University of Leicester have won the international Copernicus Masters Award for their work on a potential solution. Their research led to a mobile app, Forest Sentinel, that helps combat illegal logging. The technology enables rapid deforestation alerts to be sent to a mobile app, allowing communication with thousands of app users working out in the field via a central dashboard, allowing them to more easily protect forests.

Professor Heiko Balzter. Image: University of Leicester

Professor Heiko Balzter from the university’s school of geography, geology and the environment, and researchers Dr Ciaran Robb and Dr Pedro Rodriguez-Veiga make up the prize-winning team. The Copernicus Masters is an international competition that awards prizes to innovative solutions, developments and ideas for business and society based on Earth observation data.

Professor Balzter said: “We want to achieve a breakthrough in the fight against illegal logging with Forest Sentinel. The powerful integration of satellite images with a mobile phone app and a big data analytics capability provides a step change in the ability of organisations to respond effectively to the loss of forest land.”

This article is featured in issue 92 of Positive News magazine. Subscribe now to get the magazine delivered to your door each quarter.

The post Scientists awarded for their ‘pioneering’ mobile app to combat illegal logging appeared first on Positive News.

It will be an urban home to 125 trees and 5,200 plants, as well as flats on 19 storeys. Planned for the city of Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the latest project by architect Stefano Boeri is a bid to prove that the twin challenges of climate change and a lack of affordable housing could be tackled alongside each other through innovative architecture.

The Trudo Vertical Forest is thought to be the first vertical forest on a social housing project in the world. Following schemes in Milan, Nanjing, Lausanne, Paris and after a global call to action for architects, planners and housing companies to embrace urban forestry, Boeri has published plans for the building in the city in the south of the Netherlands.

Urban forestry is not only necessary to improve the environment of the world’s cities but also an opportunity to improve the living conditions of less fortunate city dwellers

“Urban forestry is not only necessary to improve the environment of the world’s cities but also an opportunity to improve the living conditions of less fortunate city dwellers,” said Boeri.

The building, commissioned by housing body Sint-Trudo, will include 125 ‘affordable’ social housing units as well as ‘hundreds of trees and plants’ in a variety of species. It is hoped that the biodiverse environment will help curb urban pollution and provide homes for a range of animals and insects.

Images: Stefano Boeri Architetti

The magazine and movement that’s changing the news for good.

Join as a Positive News subscriber

The post The world’s first vertical forest for low-income housing is coming to the Netherlands appeared first on Positive News.