Scientists from the AltSU Center "The Greater Altai" are developing IT solutions for nature reserves in Russia and Kazakhstan

The participants of the meeting were Lyubov Khvorova, Head of the educational program of Altai State University in the direction of "Applied Mathematics and Informatics", profile "Data Science and Computer Technologies in Biology and Medicine", Alexey Vaganov, Senior Researcher of the South Siberian Botanical Garden, Yerlan Ergaliev, Head of the Department of Mathematics EKSU named after Sarsen Amanzholov, Elena Ponkina, Head of the Department of Theoretical Cybernetics and Applied Mathematics, Altai State University, Olga Krotova, teacher of the Department of Theoretical Cybernetics and Applied Mathematics, Tatyana Akimova, Deputy Director of the Altai State Natural Biosphere Reserve (Republic of Altai, Russia), Tatyana Yashina, Deputy Director of the State Natural Reserve (Altai Republic, Russia), and Aliya Gabdullina, Head of Science, Environmental Monitoring and Information Department, Katon-Karagai State National Park (Kazakhstan).

The experts discussed the topics of joint research projects. The customers set tasks for the scientists of the REC “The Greater Altai” related to mathematical analysis and modeling.

For example, Tatyana Akimova, Deputy Director of the Altai Reserve for the Biosphere Territory Development and Educational Tourism, said that the work of researchers is hampered by the need to process huge arrays of scattered data from photo and video recorders. The number of camera traps is increasing. The arrays amount to the millions of film shots. For the reserve, it is necessary to develop a program that could filter out low-quality images.

Aliya Gabdullina from the Katon-Karagai State National Park (Kazakhstan) said that the institution needs IT technologies to monitor the Red Book bird species. The observation has been going on for over 15 years, and a program is needed to systematize this data.

Tatyana Yashina from the Katunskiy State Nature Reserve set the task of organizing a database for monitoring the state of ecosystems under conditions of recreational impact. In addition, the reserve needs a mobile application to identify the higher vascular plants in the reserve.

As Aleksey Vaganov, Senior Researcher at SSBG, explained, a distributed type database is required, similar to the one created by scientists from Altai State University for the Greater Altai transboundary biosphere reserve.
The experts of the scientific and educational center declared their readiness to fulfill all the tasks set.

The cooperation between scientists-biologists and mathematicians of REC “The Greater Altai” and nature reserves of Russia and Central Asia has been developing for several years. The partners have already created a joint database on a global international network.

In 2022, it is planned to continue joint work already in the educational field: an international master's program will be created.