Terra-i detects land-cover changes resulting from human activities in near real-time, producing updates every 16 days. It currently runs for the whole of Latin America and is being expanded over the next year to cover the entire tropics. Terra-i is a collaboration between the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT - DAPA, based in Colombia), The program on Forestry, Trees and Agroforestry (FTA) ,The Nature Conservancy (TNC, global environmental organization), the School of Business and Engineering (HEIG-VD, based in Switzerland) and King’s College London (KCL, based in the UK). The system is based on the premise that natural vegetation follows a predictable pattern of changes in greenness from one date to the next brought about by site-specific land and climatic conditions over the same period. A so-called computational neural network is ‘trained’ to understand the normal pattern of changes in vegetation greenness in relation to terrain and rainfall for a site and then marks areas as changed where the greenness suddenly changes well beyond these normal limits. Running on many computers this analysis is refreshed with new imagery every 16 days and for every 250m square of land.
Authors and Publishers
Nature Conservancy
Haute Ecole d'Ingénierie et de Gestion du Canton de Vaud
University of London
CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry
International Center for Tropical Agriculture
University of London
Haute Ecole d'Ingénierie et de Gestion du Canton de Vaud
Mission
To reduce hunger and poverty, and improve human nutrition in the tropics through research aimed at increasing the eco-efficiency of agriculture.
People
CIAT’s staff includes about 200 scientists. Supported by a wide array of donors, the Center collaborates with hundreds of partners to conduct high-quality research and translate the results into development impact. A Board of Trustees provides oversight of CIAT’s research and financial management.
Values
The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.
We address the most pressing conservation threats at the largest scale. Thanks to the support of our more than 1 million members, we’ve built a tremendous record of success since our founding in 1951:
CGIAR (CGIAR)
CGIAR is the only worldwide partnership addressing agricultural research for development, whose work contributes to the global effort to tackle poverty, hunger and major nutrition imbalances, and environmental degradation.
Data provider
CGIAR (CGIAR)
CGIAR is the only worldwide partnership addressing agricultural research for development, whose work contributes to the global effort to tackle poverty, hunger and major nutrition imbalances, and environmental degradation.