BGI Monitor – Tracking the Health and Performance of Urban Green Infrastructures

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Oct 30
3 min read

Urban green infrastructure -trees, green roofs, and rain gardens- is more than just decoration. Healthy vegetation cools cities, absorbs stormwater, supports biodiversity, and even improves mental and physical wellbeing. But maintaining this greenery at scale is a challenge. How do you know if your plants are thriving, stressed, or at risk before it’s too late?

BGI Monitor, developed under the European Space Agency’s Space Solutions programme and led by BitaGreen, addresses exactly this challenge. The platform provides a data-driven approach to monitor vegetation health and performance across urban landscapes, enabling proactive maintenance, smarter planning, and measurable impact.

Why vegetation health matters?

Cities and developers invest a lot of money in green infrastructure (GI), but they lack tools to track its actual long-term performance. When this happens, the following questions arise:

Are the plants healthy and doing their job six months, one year, or five years after installation?
Is the green infrastructure still reducing heat, storing water and supporting biodiversity as planned?
Are we getting the return we hoped for on that investment?

BGI monitor helps cities, asset mangers and green solution providers take care of green spaces in a smarter way — by showing where problems are starting, before it is too late and they get out of control. That means less waste, fewer dead plants, and a greener, cooler city that works like it’s supposed to.

By doing so, this project aims to extend the value of green infrastructure investments beyond the planning and construction phase (CAPEX), by providing tools that also support the ongoing maintenance and performance monitoring (OPEX) of these investments. This helps cities and developers ensure that the benefits of green infrastructure (like heat reduction and biodiversity) are actually sustained over time — not just designed and forgotten.

With the addition of this M&E feature, the BGI-Builder will empower municipalities and asset managers to:

Monitor vegetation health
Predict risks (drought, heat, stress)
Trigger preventative maintenance actions
Optimize budgets and demonstrate resilience impact

How BGI Monitor works?

BGI Monitor combines satellite data, ground sensors, and advanced analytics to track vegetation health in real-time:

Satellite imagery detects plant stress and growth patterns through vegetation indices and surface temperature trends.
IoT sensors in soil and on plants provide on-site measurements of moisture, temperature, and stress markers.
Dashboards & alerts transform the raw data into actionable insights — highlighting areas that need watering, trimming, or replacement.

This allows cities, asset managers, and green-solution providers to proactively manage vegetation, rather than waiting for visible decline.

Benefits for green infrastructure stakeholders

Asset managers & building owners: Monitor the health of green roofs, facades, and trees, reduce unplanned maintenance, and demonstrate measurable sustainability outcomes.
Cities & urban planners: Identify hot spots of stressed vegetation, plan interventions, and ensure that urban greenery delivers its intended climate and social benefits.
Green-solution providers: Track the performance of installations, optimize maintenance schedules, and provide evidence of impact to clients.

Looking ahead

Pilot projects are already underway, integrating satellite and sensor data to validate the platform. The goal is simple: help cities and organisations understand, maintain, and enhance the performance of their urban greenery, turning data into action for healthier, more resilient urban spaces.