Podcast Sustainable Future Dialogues 3

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:12]Welcome to sustainable future dialogue a podcast series supported by the one future project here at the faculty of economy university of tana today we'll fly a little bit higher than usual into the space or sky or something like this. Well, uh we're talking on earth observation, science, and sustainability with someone who does it all. Our guest today is Alberto Bonara, a scientist, researcher, farmer, and a motocycle rider. He brings together science and real world experience without a cap. I'm your host, Pati.

[00:00:57]Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economy, University of Tana. Welcome to Tyran, Alberto. We are so happy to have you here. Hi, Fatma. So glad to be here.

[00:01:09]Uh so you just arrived from the airport and right to the faculty of economy, a rainy day, however. So um we are happy to have you here and have this conversation together. And uh let's start with something fun.

[00:01:27]Um, you're a scientist, you are a researcher, but also I've understood that you grown your own vegetables and you ride a motorcycle and you are um the brother of the world. Yeah. So, it everything seems so fun like uh and cool like a Netflix uh series.

[00:01:52]and uh how do you manage everything and uh make sure that you do not mix the tractor with a drone or with GPS equipment.

[00:02:04]Uh actually nowadays it's very important to mix GPS and tractors because you know uh all technologies nowadays needs to to works to works with um satellitar data satellitar connection also in the agricultural field. So I want to mix with them. So you have good production of your vegetables and your not not only vegetables we have fruit uh we have maze uh sugar beats uh a lot of stuff in our and yet you'll find time to oh your own research. It's it's my family business and then there is my own business that is research. So I tried to to mix uh the things uh to mix earth observation with also my practical field that is agriculture.

[00:03:15]Okay. So perfect. So and they are very integrated nowadays. Yeah. As I said, so it's not just that you mess them but you mix perfectly well. Yeah. Yeah. We have to. And then uh were in Tana and then I understood it's your first time in Tyrana. Yeah, my first time in Albania and also in Tana. Uh may you share the purpose of your visit here in Tana in faculty of economy. So uh what brought you here? The purpose of my visit is related to the the partnership of my university that is the IUAV of Venice in the Rasmos project one future and I'm involved in the the teaching visit task of the European universities and the aim is to discuss about how sustainability is declined in our curriculums and uh in order to to to share new innovative approaches we have and then you'll have lecturing at the faculty of economy. Yeah. And where else? Uh also to the poly techchnic.

[00:04:29]Okay. Good. And they they will be quite technical. Uh no just an introduction to why we bring uh the agriculture in our uh lectures at the university because we are in a univer in a faculty of planning.

[00:04:53]So why we we speaking we talk about agriculture in our uh in our lessons at the university. So this is the aim because agriculture is a and earth observation of course are a big issues for sustainability nowadays. So you rightly mentioned and uh say simply explain so the the what your lectures will be focused on and then uh can you explain so simply in simple words the earth observation? So and why should people uh care about it especially when it comes to protecting the planet? Of course, because uh earth observation refers to the collection to the analysis to the interpretation of data about the earth physical, chemical, biological systems using remote sensing technologies typical from satellites, but also from drones, aircraft or other groundbased uh instruments, not only uh aerial instruments.

[00:06:06]This data can include im imagery, normal imagery uh rather uh thermal readings, multisspectral uh imagery and other sensor information that provides insight into the the planet surface and the atmosphere.

[00:06:27]So uh we can say that earth observation is like the planet dashboard uh because it's the only way to offer a comprehensive and scalable view of what is happening across the globe. Yeah. So just uh like in the last two senses uh sentences I I fully understood the the purpose of observation because at the beginning it was a foreign language for me and then uh you are doing your PhD in art observation and with so much technicalities and uh it's science oriented um not many people find it uh let's say excitement or interesting what keeps you engaged in this or what are you working on so something that you are uh working on. Okay. I'm I'm trying okay the the I want to start with just the aim of the the national PhD that is to train a a new generation of researcher and professional uh which are capable of um leveraging advanced your uh earth observation technologies to their research or their business. H in my case uh I want to implement earth observation in order to construct better policies for the rural uh environment. So this is uh this is my case which I think it's quite interesting not only for you but for for uh and then uh during this research you have to to make uh research papers and going to conferences and being contact with people. Is it something uh uh that actually helped in earth observation like in uh real life examples? Um does it help for example with uh fires in forest or does it lead to where farmers need to plan their um the time or where is the proper time?

[00:08:57]Of course with with earth observation we can observe a a great amount of processes that are very related to sustainable sustainability and the relative sustainable development goals.

[00:09:12]uh as you said fires, but we can track uh deforestation, urban expansion, of course, uh agricultural productivity because we can see uh information about the the vegetation, the the the health of vegetation and also the the humidity, the soil organic carbon that is stored in the soils. So we can also uh monitor the the performances of the policies for bringing um different um actions in uh in the field of agriculture. So there there is a an spectrum of about this this data and then so you you mentioned that uh so a lot of real life experiences uh beneficiaries uh benefits sorry and then uh so that we can benefit in daily life however as it is presented it's that we have any problems in the future or whatever problem we might have. We just can refer to these data and then find the solution in the analysis that we can have from this uh data that we have from our earth observation. Are there challenges uh for accessing such data? Are there um available? Can policy makers make use of them? I'm not talking for uh developed countries but for countries uh in developing uh and economies in developing phase for example are these data accessible and uh so these economies can benefit from it depends by the condition of each case. In my personal case, uh I had an experience in Kuba and it was very difficult to work with those data uh because obviously in Kuba you you could not access to directly to the data but it was a problem related to the infrastructure of the internet connection and it was also a problem related to uh a low aspect we even if we have the Wi-Fi we couldn't access so that was a big problem for us so we downloaded and elaborated all the data in Italy and then we just went to Kuba to have a a general overview in the site this so this was a a great challenge And in those cases, for example, it's practically impossible to to work with satellitary images with earth observation. Um but in in other uh circumstances I think that now are available and also um they are like um translated for all those that are not geomatics or or that are involved in these disciplines. So uh you you You are not going to see just images with values with pixel values but you can also have uh other information that are interpretated and nowadays with um artificial intelligence. They are already translated in a lot of cases by the by by a AI Sure. U so coming to to this uh so taking when you when you finish so working with these technologies and with AI and analyzing data.

[00:13:47]Um this podcast as you know is part of the one future project which is all about encouraging young people to take action. So would you have any advice um to give to our students to our econom uh students that uh study at faculty of economy but uh let's say beyond our faculty who want to work in science or make a difference in the environment u or just join the team of the change makers. So do you have any advice for them? The first advice is to build a a strong for uh foundation, a strong formation in science, technology and critical thinking. Um also learning to use data uh and digital tools including uh GIS that means geographical information systems and earth observation platforms. uh for example in Google there is Google Earth Engine very accessible you need to to know the JavaScript but it's accessible more or less from all over the world um so and connecting with the teachers with scientists with also environmental activists and another message I want to to share is to think that your choice can be useful for the planet, your own choice. You you have to start to to how can I say uh baby steps. Yeah.

[00:15:45]The important thing is that you have to believe that you can make a real impact.

[00:15:53]This is the the the final uh let's say thought vision that they might have uh which is quite uh interesting. And then um before we let you go uh where can people follow your work or learn more about Earth observation without needing a PhD because not everyone will dare to have a PhD in earth observation but then learn understand interpret well in Google Scholar there are some of the articles I wrote related to earth observation there are also some Italian journals where I wrote something about especially for the case of flooding in Romania region. Um but if it's not just my uh activity but the the activ the general activity of earth observation I can say without any doubt that you can find a lot of materials in YouTube with a lot of tutorials and also in um a lot of websites uh as copernicus for example for all the European Union. So there are just need some eagerness to start.

[00:17:29]Alberto, thank you so much for this fun.

[00:17:32]Thank you Fatima to me. Yeah, it was so interesting to have you here and have a conversation. Now um I love how your work shows us that u protecting the environment and our earth it's not based only what do we on the earth but quite important it's also uh how we look it from above and uh our conversation show perfectly today uh do I have any last takeaway from this discussion or any thought or uh whatever so Um I really appreciate the the effort of uh this project about one what one future want to to bring brings on. So uh I I just assume that all the next uh um hosts we will uh improve all this dialogue and I'm I'm so glad to to be part of this. Yeah. Yeah. For sure.

[00:18:41]Thank you for this. So that's for today episode on sustainable future diamonds.

[00:18:46]Thank you for listening us and don't forget to stay curious.

[00:18:52]make questions and do your part for a greener and better world. See you next time. And until next time, I'd like to say have a green day. So,