LEKO Mobile: buses equipped with bioacoustic sensors

An acoustic sensor capable of detecting the presence of over a hundred animal species by recording their ultrasonic frequencies in the environment.

LEKO Mobile, the first "mobile thermometer" for continuous analysis of biodiversity.

The Rouen Normandy Metropolis and its transport operator Transdev Group, Birdz (French leader in the Internet of Things for the environment), and the National Museum of Natural History have joined forces to design and test a mobile solution that is unique in Europe. It offers automatic and continuous measurement of biodiversity across a region.

Thanks to this innovation, buses are also becoming instruments for measuring biodiversity. Equipped with bioacoustic sensors, they can identify and quantify the species they hear.

Since January 2023, seven buses in the Rouen Normandy Metropolitan Area's Astuce network have been equipped with bioacoustic sensors that continuously record bats, birds, and even grasshoppers. Their installation on moving equipment is a first in France. A fixed sensor has also been installed at the Astuce network's headquarters.

They analyze ultrasonic sound signatures to identify the calls of chiropterans (or bats). These near-blind mammals move around thanks to the ultrasonic echolocation they emit. Because of their position at the end of the food chain, bats have few predators and are therefore a relevant indicator of biodiversity.

Birdz, associated with the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, uses the data generated by the sensors installed on the vehicles to produce 3 indicators for assessing the state of ecosystem health (water quality, light pollution, tree cover) as well as a summary note on ecosystem health.

Leko Mobile & biodiversity

Sound data are not preserved, all recordings are processed in near-real time for identification of each species.

The inventory data are intended to be aggregated in the Metropole Rouen Normandie biodiversity database and in the Inventaire National du Patrimoine Naturel managed by the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.

This tool, made in France at Pessac, and its data, are likely to be used by various departments within a territory: transport, planning and projects, urban planning, environment. It also makes it possible to objectively measure the impact of public policies on biodiversity, and thus aid decision-making.

Leko Mobile, is a 2023 Laureate of the Propulse program of the French Ministry of Transport's Agence d'Innovation dans les Transport (AIT). It is also a finalist in the Salon des Maires innovation competition and is supported by the Banques des Territoires!

The Leko Mobile project...

  • To inventory species - bats, grasshoppers, and some birds, and now some butterflies, glowworms - to have a continuous snapshot of the ecological state of the territory and its evolution;
  • Drastically increase the available data on biodiversity (estimated increase in available data: x5 on the animal inventory in one year and x50 on bats in one year in Rouen);
  • To inform - continuously and over the long term - the 3 indicators for assessing the state of ecosystem health;
  • To know the evolution of part of the biodiversity heritage, thus enabling the most endangered species and the pressures at work on biodiversity to be taken into account.
“It's a first in France to have such a sensor installed on moving equipment.”

Guillaume Aribaud, Directeur Général de Transdev Rouen

Did you know?

Bats, as well as other species of birds, are in fact the best markers of the environment, their presence the sign of a healthy ecosystem!

This initiative is a first in France and testifies to Transdev Normandie's commitment to the environment

 

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