From Ecological Knowledge to Restoration Action
Our Vision
Our vision is to weave together ecological knowledge from diverse sources, using state-of-the-art computational technologies, and create EcoWeaver, an infrastructure that includes an openly accessible knowledge base that adheres to the FAIR and CARE principles and the tools to create, manage, and access it.
What?
- Develop a core infrastructure using semantic and causal modeling.
- Fill it with ecological knowledge.
- Include information on context, biases and uncertainties.
How?
- Build strong interdisciplinary teams including e.g. ecologists, philosophers, AI researchers
Why?
Enhance ecological theory and practice by
- improving understanding
- incorporating diverse forms of knowledge
- accounting for diverse user needs
Our Mission
EcoWeaver will (i) support generating novel insights, (ii) enhance ecological understanding and (iii) empower people to make informed decisions.
The Toolkit for Restoration Knowledge (TReK), the core application
of EcoWeaver, will be tailored for significantly enhancing the efficiency
and effectiveness of ecological restoration.
Results
Imagine a global knowledge base where open ecological data and AI accelerate research and make restoration more effective.
The Problem
Today, no such system exists. Ecological knowledge is scattered across scientific papers, professional reports, monitoring data, and project summaries. Much of it isn’t machine-readable, annotated, or even accessible. Even if it were, translating findings across ecosystems or integrating different methodologies remains extremely difficult. Other fields, like biomedicine, have begun to overcome this fragmentation with knowledge graphs, ontologies, and AI. Ecology still lags behind.
Our Solution
EcoWeaver & TReK are changing that. We are an international network of ecologists, computer scientists, and philosophers under the Hi Knowledge initiative (www.hi-knowledge.org). Together with practitioners, we are building the infrastructure to turn fragmented ecological information into actionable knowledge – creating the evidence base needed to advance restoration and reverse biodiversity loss.
Expected Impact
TReK will change restoration workflows: Quick and easy access to ecological knowledge will allow practitioners to check for latest scientific insight and experience from related projects from all over the world. A user-friendly interface will allow chatting with TReK to jointly develop the best restoration solution tailored to the specific context. EcoWeaver will inspire researchers to interact with ecological knowledge from diverse sources in novel ways, allowing on-demand syntheses with clear flagging of gaps in knowledge, biases and uncertainties.