Wildlife movements
Using drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras, ARPA Lombardia pilots have been observing the movements of wildlife: deer, roe deer, hares, and wild boars. This is the action taken on Mount Chiusarella (VA) by ARPA Lombardia pilots in recent weeks. The monitoring activity involved technicians from the CREO (Regional Earth Observation Center) Organizational Unit, the regional department for Innovation, Research, and Sustainability of ARPA Lombardia, who began observing wildlife in Campo dei Fiori Park (VA). This is a first-of-its-kind operation for the Agency, made possible thanks to the use of a recently acquired drone thermal imaging camera.
The project
These actions are part of the INTERREG ALP-AI project "Artificial Intelligence for the Protection of the Environment and Transboundary Biodiversity," in which the Agency has been participating since early 2026, together with the Polytechnic University of Milan, the Polytechnic Foundation, the Campo dei Fiori Park, the Cantonal Plant Protection Service (CH), and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (CH). The Agency's pilots were accompanied by park staff who, thanks to their excellent knowledge of the area and the animals' habits, recommended the best places to observe the fauna. These mammals, in fact, emerge from the forest to feed primarily at night and are easily found in areas with sparse vegetation.
Use of drones
Among the project's objectives: developing a methodological approach for using drones at night to monitor wildlife and providing an estimate of the population in a given area. Furthermore, thanks to the acquisition of thermal imaging images, the Polytechnic will be able to "train" algorithms using artificial intelligence to automatically recognize and count animals. Future surveys will be conducted at different times of the year and in other areas of the Park, in order to refine the drone deployment methodology and acquire data useful to the project partners.
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