GREEN+ Launch Report | Prof. Eiman Kanjo

GREEN+ launch and sandpit report image 4

EXECUTIVE VISION

Green spaces as intelligent public infrastructure

Green+ connects digital innovation with ecological knowledge and lived experience to improve how green spaces are understood, managed and shared.

The network’s ambition

Green+ will build the evidence, technologies and partnerships needed to treat green space as essential infrastructure: ecologically valuable, socially inclusive and capable of adapting to environmental change.

Its technical direction centres on low-power sensing, edge AI, distributed intelligence, responsible connectivity, satellite and spatial data, and participatory tools. These capabilities should support decisions close to the place where data are produced, while reducing unnecessary data movement and protecting privacy.

The launch and sandpit established a clear opportunity: link technical capability to management needs, community priorities and ecological outcomes. The network can then move from isolated pilots towards interoperable, trusted and maintainable systems.

MISSION

Connect research, practice, industry and communities around shared green-space challenges.

METHOD

Co-design technology with the people and organisations that will use, maintain and govern it.

IMPACT

Convert environmental and social observations into evidence for action, investment and policy.

STRATEGIC DIRECTION

Four priorities for the network

The launch discussions converged on four connected priorities. They form a coherent programme rather than separate

technology themes.

Evidence for decisions

Continuous, credible measures of ecological condition, use and value that can inform planning, maintenance, biodiversity net gain and investment.

Safe and inclusive access

Context-aware tools that improve routes, confidence, accessibility and belonging without introducing intrusive surveillance.

Ecological intelligence

Multimodal observation of soil, water, vegetation, wildlife and climate pressures across local and landscape scales.

Responsible digital infrastructure

Low-power, robust and maintainable systems with clear data governance, transparent AI and proportionate connectivity.

These priorities connect public value to technical development. A sensing system is useful only if its evidence is trusted;

an access tool is responsible only if it protects people; ecological monitoring matters only when it changes decisions.

TECHNICAL VISION

A distributed intelligence layer for green places

Green+ will explore systems that combine local sensing and intelligence with wider spatial evidence and human knowledge.

5 Decisions and action

Planning • maintenance • restoration • access • investment

4 Shared evidence

Interoperable data products • uncertainty • provenance • dashboards

3 Distributed intelligence

Edge AI • TinyML • federated and collaborative analysis • event detection

2 Connectivity and integration

Mesh and low-power networks • gateways • satellite and spatial data

1 Observation

Soil • water • air • sound • imagery • movement • citizen observations

Cross-cutting requirements: security, privacy, inclusion, lifecycle impact, maintainability, open interfaces and community governance.

EVIDENCE FROM THE LAUNCH

A shared challenge space emerged

The launch brought together green-space managers, technology organisations, researchers, local authorities, charities and community interests.

GREEN+ launch and sandpit report image 9

≈70

launch participants

≈40

sandpit participants

160+

poll responses

developed project clusters

The strongest messages were consistent across the discussions: safety and equitable access are central; managers need better evidence of ecological

and social value; technology must be low-power, unobtrusive and maintainable; and data ownership and trust must be considered from the outset.

RESEARCH AGENDA

From needs to technical questions

The network’s role is to translate real management and community needs into research questions that can support deployable

systems.

Challenge	Research question	Technical directions
Evidence and valuation	How can heterogeneous observations be converted into credible, comparable evidence for biodiversity, use, condition and public value?	Data models, sensor fusion, uncertainty, longitudinal baselines, decision-support interfaces
Safety and inclusion	How can technology improve confidence, access and route choice without creating surveillance, exclusion or false assurance?	Inclusive navigation, contextual information, privacy-preserving analytics, participatory evaluation
Ecological condition	How can sparse, seasonal and noisy observations reveal change in soil, water, vegetation and wildlife?	TinyML, acoustic and visual sensing, anomaly detection, remote sensing, adaptive sampling
Infrastructure at scale	How can systems remain low-carbon, secure, repairable and useful across dispersed sites with poor connectivity?	Energy-aware compute, mesh networks, local inference, robust hardware, lifecycle assessment
Governance and adoption	Who controls data, models and interventions, and how are benefits shared?	Data trusts, open standards, transparent models, procurement, community stewardship

RESPONSIBLE INNOVATION

Technology that belongs in green space

Acceptance will depend on how systems are designed, governed and maintained, not solely on their technical performance.

Purpose before deployment

Begin with an ecological, operational or public need. Avoid sensing without a defined decision pathway.

Minimum necessary data

Process locally where possible. Collect the least data needed and avoid identifiable data unless justified.

Visible governance

State who owns, accesses and benefits from the data. Make retention and sharing rules understandable.

Ecological proportionality

Assess disturbance, embodied impact, energy use, maintenance and end-of-life impacts alongside expected benefits.

Co-design and accessibility

Include communities, managers and under-represented users throughout design and evaluation.

Long-term operability

Plan calibration, connectivity, repair, skills, procurement and handover before field deployment.

These principles provide a common basis for challenge calls, demonstrators and evaluation.

They also respond directly to concerns raised at the launch about privacy, digital exclusion, environmental burden, trust, cost and accountability.

EMERGING PORTFOLIO

Four project directions from the sandpit

The sandpit converted shared priorities into interdisciplinary concepts. These are starting points for development,

validation and future funding rather than completed programmes.

Evidence for biodiversity net gain

Citizen and sensor data to support land-level evidence, shared taxonomies and planning decisions.

Responsive paths

Inclusive navigation and context-aware route information responding to user needs and changing conditions.

Canine environmental sensing

Citizen-led protocols exploring dogs as biological indicators of contamination and ecological condition.

Rewilded and connected green spaces

Embedded intelligence, environmental sensing and augmented engagement across distributed green infrastructure.

Across the portfolio, the common requirement is integration: ecological expertise, reliable technology, inclusive design,

operational ownership and evidence of impact must develop together.

ROUTE TO IMPACT

Connected demonstrators build shared capability

Our community can collectively create value by linking local experiments to common methods, technical building blocks and

evidence standards.

Mobilise

Refine challenge statements, develop teams, support focused workshops and agree responsible innovation criteria.

Prototype

Create small demonstrators, test sensing and edge AI methods, and establish baseline measures and user requirements.

Connect

Link sites and datasets, test interoperability, compare deployment contexts and share tools and protocols.

Validate

Evaluate ecological, social, operational and lifecycle outcomes with managers and communities.

Translate

Embed validated approaches in practice, procurement, policy evidence and larger research programmes.

SHARED ASSETS

Open protocols, interoperable data structures, tested hardware patterns, evaluation methods and demonstrator evidence

SUCCESS MEASURES

Decision usefulness, inclusion, ecological benefit, technical reliability, lifecycle impact and sustained adoption

A PLATFORM FOR COLLABORATION

From launch event to national capability

Green+ begins with a broad definition of green space and a precise ambition:

use responsible technology to generate better evidence, enable better decisions and widen the benefits of nature.

The launch established a community ready to work across disciplinary and institutional boundaries. Its value will come from sustained collaboration: green-space managers defining real problems, communities shaping acceptable interventions, researchers advancing the science, and industry helping systems operate beyond a pilot.

The network will treat green spaces as living systems and public infrastructure. Technology will be judged by whether it strengthens ecological resilience, improves inclusive access and gives decision-makers evidence they can use.

GREEN+ launch and sandpit report image 15

Report by Prof. Eiman Kanjo, 2026

Acknowledgements

Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), APP55881: GREEN+ Network Plus. The network thanks the advisory board, speakers, facilitators and all participants who contributed their knowledge and ideas.