Testing Spheer in Nature Monitoring
From September 2025 to May 2026, BIJ12 led a study into whether, and if so how, Spheer can play a supporting role in vegetation monitoring and mapping. The research was structured around four use cases, each focusing on a characteristic Dutch landscape type: a heathland area (De Borkeld, Strabrechtse Heide and Beuven), a dune area (Noord-Hollands Duinreservaat), a fen peatland area (Wieden-Weerribben) and a stream valley area (Vechtdal Overijssel).
Within each use case, classification and regression models were trained on the basis of recent vegetation maps using three different model variants, the Sentinel-2 model, the AHN model and the high-resolution model, and selected vegetation structures, vegetation types and habitat types were examined in detail. In addition, a usability test was carried out with eleven users.
The project was conducted and supervised by a broad project group of vegetation experts, remote sensing specialists and policymakers, drawn from organisations including Altenburg & Wymenga, Van der Goes en Groot, De Ronde & Haveman, the University of Twente, and various provinces and ministries.
BIJ12 is the document owner, and the final version of the report was delivered on 22 May 2026.
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