I-Corps: Ecological Asset Tradeoffs

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力在于开发技术，使只有一公顷土地的农民能够参与全球碳和生态系统服务市场，支持他们从传统的、退化的农业做法（例如，单一作物和对化肥、除草剂和杀虫剂的依赖）过渡到可再生的农业做法(例如，农林业、低耕和自然营养，健康土壤)，为公司提供机会，通过购买基于实践的生态资产来实现其可持续发展目标。尽管这类生态资产的市场尚未经过检验，但对碳信用额和其他生态系统服务的需求正在迅速增长。目前的碳信用发起成本对于小型项目来说过于昂贵，在大多数情况下，只有在1200公顷以上的土地上才有经济意义。这项技术将为全世界大约500万小农户（只有几公顷土地的农民）提供参与这些市场的能力，扩大供应以满足当前需求，并在实现气候目标方面取得有意义的进展。I-Corps项目的基础是开发基于实践的方法，利用人类感知（通过智能手机记录的图像和数据）、天空感知（卫星和无人机图像）、遥感（物联网设备和传感器）和声誉感知（可信赖项目的社区认证）来验证生态状态的变化。该项目正在开发一种可持续的、可扩展的模式，利用分散的、数字形式的生态系统服务测量、报告和验证，发行基于实践的生态资产。该技术是一个收集、合成和共享来自国际小农的可验证的碳封存数据的平台。这种方法通过利用经常被忽视的小农和他们现成的技术（在他们的移动电话和卫星图像上更负担得起）来证明他们转向再生做法，从而降低了成本，促进了气候行动。它还将数据不可变地放在链上作为影响证明（比当前方法成本更低，更透明）。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of technology to enable farmers with as little as one hectare of land to participate in global carbon and ecosystem services markets supporting their transition from traditional, degrading farming practices (e.g., monocrops and dependence on fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides) to regenerative farming practices (e.g., agroforestry, low-till, and naturally nutritious, healthy soil) by offering companies the opportunity to meet their sustainability goals through the purchase of practice-based ecological assets. Although the market for these types of ecological assets has not yet been tested, the demand for carbon credits and other ecosystem services is growing rapidly. Current carbon credit origination costs are too expensive for small projects, only making financial sense beyond 1200 hectares in most cases. This technology will unlock the ability for the roughly 5 million small-holder farmers (farmers with only a few hectares of land) around the world to participate in these markets, scaling supply to meet the current demand and making meaningful progress toward climate goals.This I-Corps project is based on the development of practice-based methodologies for verifying changes in ecological state using human-sensing (images and data recorded via smartphones), sky-sensing (satellite and drone images), remote-sensing (internet of things devices and sensors) and reputational-sensing (community accreditation of trustworthy projects). This project is developing a sustainable and scalable model for issuing practice-based ecological assets using decentralized, digital forms of measurement, reporting, and verification of ecosystem services. The technology is a platform to collect, synthesize, and share verifiable carbon sequestration data from international small-scale farmers. This approach reduces costs and increases climate action by leveraging often-overlooked small-holder farmers and technology readily available to them (more affordable, on their mobile phones, and via satellite imaging), to prove their conversion to regenerative practices. It also places data immutably on-chain as Proof-of-Impact (lower cost and more transparent than current methods).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.