Beginning of spring last year, March 2025, the OBSGESSION team attended a Biodiversa+ workshop on the development and harmonisation of habitat connectivity indicators. This workshop gave public authorities, experts from research organisations and European institutions the opportunity to investigate and discuss the ways in which structural and connectivity metrics are being used. Main discussions included the scientific and technical challenges remaining and the way indicator development can better meet certain policy needs. 

Following the workshop, participants and contributors, amongst whom - Petteri Vihervaara (SYKE), OBSGESSION’s coordinator, Sander Mucher (WUR) and Michiel van Eupen (WUR), have written a report “Towards Harmonised Biodiversity Indicators: Insights from a Biodiversa+ Workshop on Connectivity” which identifies the key challenges of the discussed issues. The publication emphasises the necessity for upgraded access to high-resolution and on-site data, clearer workflows, stronger science-policy connections and organised capacity-building across countries.

Available in Zenodo, the report also outlines several opportunities that will help tackle the identified challenges, including advanced network-based indicators, usage of open tools and platforms, coordination of remote sensing with field data, etc.