Small structures and landscape elements provide a valuable habitat for many semi-natural and natural plant and animal species. Indicators on the type and frequency of small structures and landscape elements are periodically derived from the geotopographic data set ATKIS-Basis DLM for Germany as part of the risk management of plant protection products and supported by data reports from the federal states (e.g. IACS, biotope type mapping). A regular qualification of these data regarding the value (e.g. age, species, closeness to nature; connectivity) is necessary and possible by remote sensing methods (e.g. LiDAR, VHR). For this purpose, automated routines have to be further developed and made available, especially for linear landscape elements.

Based on the indicators for habitat quality, further analyses on the influence of habitat structure on selected species or species groups are planned. As a concrete application example, it is planned to take into account the influence of near-natural habitat structures in the vicinity of vineyards where experiments on hymenopteran biodiversity is carried out.