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Audi Hungaria: Smart hives for biodiversity

2021. 05. 20.

Audi Hungaria is committed to a more liveable, greener future, and is consistently progressing on the road to sustainability, considering the preservation of biodiversity a strategic objective. In this spirit, the Company (which has been carbon-neutral since 2020) has joined the "we4bee” initiative supported by the Audi Environmental Foundation, as part of which it has added a smart hive equipped with high-tech sensors to the apiary operating on the plant premises.

Győr, 20 May 2021 -

The objective of the programme initiated by bee researcher professor Dr. Jürgen Tautz is to use data from the smart hives linked to the network in order to study the behaviour of honeybees and the impacts of the environment on bee colonies. In the first phase of the international research project, 100 smart hives were installed in various locations: primarily in schools, educational institutions and local apiaries in Germany. The research was then extended to additional locations, as part of which Audi Hungaria also joined the initiative.

A beekeeper takes care of the bee families at each site, with the data retrieved using an application and then analysed at the University of Würzburg. The smart hives can also be used for educational purposes as demonstration hives. The high-tech sensors allow for the collection of various data, such as temperature, humidity, air pressure, weight, sound/vibration and fine dust pollution. The goal of the researchers is to identify typical patterns in bee behaviour, allowing them to support the work of beekeepers in the short term and, in the long term, to use the behavior of bees to generate forecasts for upcoming environmental events such as storms, droughts or earthquakes. The objective of the "we4bee” initiative is also to show just how close the interdependency between humans, animals and the environment is.

Audi Hungaria has been operating its apiary since 2015, with the aim of directing attention to the endangered status of bees and their roles in sustaining biodiversity. In addition to the production of honey, the apiculture project also allows for biomonitoring research. The apiary of six bee families has been set up on an area of close to 1.2 hectares whose flora is made up of indigenous plant species.

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