The Institute of Landscape Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) is an interdisciplinary research institution conducting basic and applied landscape-ecological research, as well as implementing environmental projects, plans and expert studies. The Institute's activities are divided into several areas:

Science: Development of basic landscape-ecological research methods.

Application of results in practice: Development of methods for transferring scientific knowledge into decision-making and planning processes.

Expertise activities: Carrying out surveys, technical studies, opinions and assessment reports on the environment.

Editorial activities: Publishing the journals Ecology (Bratislava), Environment, and Ecological Studies, as well as scientific and professional monographs.

Education and training: The Institute is an external training centre for doctoral studies in the Environmental Science programme, in the field of Protection and Land Use. It cooperates with universities in educational activities and with primary and secondary schools in the field of environmental education.

Ján Černecký – WEED Experience and Involvement

“Through our previous project, PEOPLE EA, which focused on preparing ecosystem extent data for ecosystem accounting, I gained an overview of developments in methods for identifying ecosystems using AI, Earth remote sensing, and technologies developed by ESA. In the WEED project, there is a clear continuity and further refinement of the models and approaches that can yield the best possible results to date in terms of ecosystem identification at the national level.

An important step in the process is data validation, ideally based on field mapping, and it is precisely the work with this data—as well as the verification and validation of models—that will be the main activity in which I will be involved. Feedback from experts in ecology is the foundation for improving models and for overall progress in this field.”
— Ján Černecký