Mapping habitats for nature recovery: lessons from Space4Nature
10th June 2026
About
Over the past three years, the Space4Nature project has explored innovative approaches to mapping and monitoring priority habitats to inform nature recovery in Surrey and beyond. Bringing together academic research and conservation practice, the project has tested how emerging methods can strengthen evidence for decision‑making on the ground.
Central to this wide‑ranging project has been the development of models that predict chalk grassland, acid grassland and lowland heathland habitats using citizen science data, satellite imagery and machine‑learning techniques. Further research is now applying ‘deep learning’ methodologies to remotely detect wetland habitats across Surrey.
In this webinar Dr Ana Andries and Sahar Sharifi provide an overview of the Space4Nature project and its application. This is followed by a presentation from Dr Ben Siggery on closing the divide between conservation practice and academia. The Q&A discussion explored questions around practical uses for the tool, including wetland mapping, users and customers of detailed habitat maps, identifying hidden water bodies and partner engagement.
Dr Ana Andries
Senior Lecturer in Remote Sensing and GIS, University of Surrey
Dr Ana Andries
Senior Lecturer in Remote Sensing and GIS, University of Surrey
Dr Ana Andries has over a decade of experience in Geographical Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, and Earth Observation (EO) for environmental sustainability. Her work sits at the intersection of EO science, sustainability policy, and decision support, with particular expertise in translating complex spatial and environmental data into actionable evidence for policy, practice, and conservation.
Her research spans biodiversity conservation, habitat mapping, soil health, carbon sequestration, and climate change adaptation and resilience, alongside broader sustainability challenges linked to poverty, inequality, education, and governance. She has developed a strong interdisciplinary profile that combines advanced technical expertise in EO, spatial analysis, and environmental assessment with qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews and stakeholder engagement.
Sahar Sharifi
Postgraduate Research Student: Using Earth Observation for the assessment of Urban, Peri-Urban and Wetland Sites
Sahar Sharifi
Postgraduate Research Student: Using Earth Observation for the assessment of Urban, Peri-Urban and Wetland Sites
Sahar’s PhD research focuses on leveraging Earth Observation data for the assessment and monitoring of urban, peri-urban, and wetland environments. The project explores how innovative EO and AI capabilities -particularly Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery- can be integrated with ground-based datasets to evaluate key habitat attributes such as quality, connectivity, and ecological networks. These analyses aim to improve our understanding of ecosystem structures and contribute to nature recovery and biodiversity enhancement across selected research sites.
In recent years, machine learning, particularly deep learning, has made substantial progress and has become a transformative component of EO-based environmental monitoring. The integration of these data-driven methods with high-resolution remote sensing imagery enables more accurate, efficient, and scalable analyses of complex ecological systems. This fusion between AI and EO advances scientific understanding and provides actionable insights for sustainable urban planning, ecosystem restoration, and adaptive environmental management.
Ben Siggery
Doctoral Practitioner: Developing the integration of palaeoecology into UK conservation
Ben Siggery
Doctoral Practitioner: Developing the integration of palaeoecology into UK conservation
Ben’s PhD research focuses on developing the integration of palaeoecology into UK conservation, coming from a unique position as a conservation practitioner based within an academic setting. His research aims to examine the integration of palaeoecology into biodiversity conservation, primarily demonstrated within a UK context, via a mixed methods, holistic exploration of the challenges and their solutions. Firstly, it examines the ways in which conservation practitioners perceive the role and value of palaeoecology through exploring their perceptions of the science and of existing palaeoecological research. Secondly, it explores how to improve the applications of palaeoecology to support conservation, through generating case studies from primary research at three key scales of focus: species, site and habitat. Finally, underpinning this thesis is the work to enhance the relevance and accessibility of knowledge derived from palaeoecology for practitioners. This is developed through actionable recommendations, data visualisation and translation to relevant ecological metrics. The sum of the parts provides a valuable step towards closing the divide between palaeoecologists and conservation practitioners.
Underlying all of this is the key theme of knowledge exchange between academic and conservation practitioners, and many of the learnings are valuable for enhancing the co-production of other research collaborations that the Wildlife Trusts are involved in. By using palaeoecology to inform conservation restoration targets, alongside the Space4Nature technology to track progress towards them, the project can combine the past and the future to help us protect the present.
Webinar outline
This webinar explored Space4Nature, a three‑year collaborative project led by Surrey Wildlife Trust and the University of Surrey, working with partners including Buglife and Painshill Park Trust. In this webinar Dr Ana Andries and Sahar Sharifi provided an overview of the project, followed by a presentation from Ben Siggery on closing the divide between conservation practice and academia. It concluded with a Q&A discussion.
FAQ
Space4Nature is a three‑year collaborative project led by Surrey Wildlife Trust and the University of Surrey, working with partners including Buglife and Painshill Park Trust. The project explores how Earth Observation, satellite imagery and artificial intelligence can be used alongside citizen science to improve habitat mapping and monitoring for nature recovery.
Space4Nature focuses on a range of priority habitats, including chalk grassland, acid grassland, heathland, peri‑urban habitats and wetlands. These habitats were surveyed by volunteers and analysed using remote sensing and machine‑learning techniques to improve understanding of their distribution and condition.
