D2C - Corona is not halting D2C project implementation

20-04-2020

COVID-19 outbreak is influencing our life substantially, there are more or less rigorous restrictions  in partner countries which don’t allow us to work normally. However, the project work is not halted. Yes, personal events are cancelled or postponed, working meetings are online, but all other work is going on – either expert work and field work. See what some of us do in this strange period.

Lead partner BUND, Germany

According to the original plans the biannual project partners meeting had to be hold this week. The last time we met in Croatia in October and no one of us supposed it was the last meeting of whole team for a year. So, corona forced us to cancel personal meeting thus we organized a set of online ones with all project partners. The agenda was quite normal – what is a status of work, how much funds are spent and are to be spent, what are actuall challenges and achievements. This is a screen of online meeting with guys from the Vienna University.

 

University of Vienna, Austria

University buildings are closed for normal operation. Luckily, we can operate our PCs in the office via remote access, so we can work, somewhat limited, but still, on our tasks in home-office.
Currently, we are working on the connectivity analysis of the whole Green Belt area using transnational data on the EUNIS habitat types (100m resolution). Of course, this data doesn't replace the high-resolution SENTINEL-data (10m) but it gives an essential insight for the D2C goals regarding the connectivity of the entire Green Belt.

 

Ametyst NGO, Czechia

Members of our team are used to working from their homes. Like other teams we are in touch using conference calls and other modern technologies (see the picture below). Perhaps we only have less time to work, because now we have to pay attention to children and other family members. Anyway, there is some field survey to finish as well and fortunately it is possible despite the state of emergency in Czechia. 

 

Iron Gates Nature Park Administration, Romania
In this period we try to be maximum 3 persons at the same place and the same time. Anyway, we still have a lot of field work.
We have contracted experts for ecosystem services analysis. We have identified 6 sample areas to be analysed and coordinated it with our partner at other bank of Danube in Serbia to have at least one in the mirror.
See the map of smaple areas: 

 

Ekopolis Foundation & State Nature Conservation, Slovakia

We are still improving necessary GIS layers and adding new ones, like built areas, small building, military areas, barriers made by transportation infrastructure, barriers on watercourses, etc. See example below:

Programme co-funded by European Union funds (ERDF, IPA, ENI)