What do conservation practitioners want from remote sensing?

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British Trust for Ornithology (BTO): Monday 1st February 2010 The BTO is an independent scientific research trust, investigating the populations, movements and ecology of wild birds in the British Isles. In a partnership between amateurs and professionals, the BTO conducts high-quality, impartial research in field ornithology and provides scientific evidence and advice on priority issues in bird conservation. Attendees: Ali Johnston David Noble Gavin Siriwardena Graham Austin Mark Crick (JNCC) Rob Robinson Sarah Moon (CCI) Simon Gillings Staffan Roos (by phone) Stuart Newson Tim Harrison Introduction This workshop was held as part of Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) collaboration on remote sensing through the CCI Shared Challenges Project. This work will consist of the following stages: 1. Discuss the unrealised potential value of remote sensing data in addressing problems in biodiversity conservation policy and practice with experts on conservation policy and practice in interested CCI member organisations. This is being done by means of a series of workshops at each of five organisations. 2. Synthesis of results from all of the workshops into a User Needs Assessment which lists potential applications and identifies the obstacles to their realisation. This stage will include discussion with remote sensing technical experts in CCI partner organisations, including the University of Cambridge 3. Communication of the results of the User needs Assessment to centres of excellence in remote sensing techniques and large-scale data processing. This aims to find specialists in these areas who would be willing to talk to conservation practitioners and policy experts. 4. Workshop at which conservation practitioners and policy experts attempt to identify useful projects that could be implemented immediately and otherwise to inform research and development on the most important unresolved questions. The workshop began with a power point presentation by Sarah Moon (on behalf of Graeme Buchanan) which outlined the principles of remote sensing and examples of remote sensing applications to conservation problems. Then attendees were asked to discuss some of their needs from remote sensing data and ideas for new applications. Points from the discussion are below, divided into i) Broad points about the applicability and usefulness of remote sensing ii) Needs from CCI – what could CCI do as a collective community to help inform and progress use of remote sensing data in Cambridge iii) User needs from remote sensing. 1. Broad/fundamental points: All agreed that presenting user needs cases to remote sensors and data providers will be useful. Being clearer about what sort of things we want will ensure that they do not dismiss useful data as ‘noise’ 25
It is often difficult to measure change over time (e.g. in land cover) with data sets derived from remote sensing because new data are often improved (e.g. with improved methodologies) and cannot be compared to older ones. It would be useful if new data could be calibrated in some way with older data sets so that it is possible to measure change over time. Though a number of data sets are coming on board for free there is still an issue of cost of accessing remote sensing data. Data providers (including e.g. European initiatives such as GMES) should consider different types of funding structure for different organisations so that conservation charities can get an affordable rate. To make good use of derived data sets it is important to have information on issues behind the data. It is important to know processing history, and having information on calibration and interpretation of images can help you interpret things you don’t expect (e.g. if you can know the land classification allocated and the ‘next likely’ classification). Google Earth was agreed to be a very user friendly interface and it would be good to have other data sets available behind this same type of easy interface. Google Earth itself would be more useful if it provided access on a systematic basis to historical images. Remote sensors/data providers do not ‘advertise their wares’ to potential conservation users. For example, NASA has recently opened up its archives of LANDSAT data in time series, but this launch had really low profile. It would be good to have more people in a ‘translator’ role- i.e. people whom BTO /other conservation organisations could approach and who could advise them of how and whether their remote sensing needs could be met, the best data sets to use, issues with using that data set etc. It is difficult to have the capacity to do this in house. [This could also be relevant for CCI to consider]. It was noted that the NERC ‘National centre for Earth Observation ‘does aim to perform a similar function. Mark Crick (JNCC) alerted attendees to the development of the European GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) programme. This is aiming to provide a range of data sets and products, including high resolution imagery on selected areas and has the potential to meet some of the needs of conservation organisations. Work is ongoing at the moment to identify the most useful products and it is important for the conservation community not just to input but (later) to test some of the GMES products and report back on how useful they are. It is likely that some of the data provided will be open access and some not, but access might be facilitated by partnerships with others e.g. government Departments. 2. Needs from CCI It would be useful for CCI to consider how it could, on an ongoing basis, facilitate information exchange on remote sensing including availability of derived data sets and how people are using them. One useful type of activity would be a workshop where people present their latest work with remote sensing products, with the possibility for interaction (e.g. a ‘speed dating’ format). 3. User needs from remote sensing Wetlands/coastal Land cover Wetlands- loss of habitats around UK coasts. Intertidal habitats and how they have changed One constraint of habitat modelling using LANDSAT is that land cover types are often too crudefor birds the important variable is often within a category (though overlaying with Ordnance Survey data might help) 26
Page 1 and 2: What do conservation practitioners
Page 3 and 4: Contents Introduction .............
Page 5 and 6: Stage 2 and 3: This report and the
Page 7 and 8: 1.2 Change in habitat extent and di
Page 9 and 10: Overgrazing of natural and semi-nat
Page 11 and 12: The number and extent of sites at r
Page 13 and 14: 2.3 Access to and promotion of data
Page 15 and 16: Annex Background to the user needs
Page 17 and 18: 4. Remote sensing could be used mor
Page 19 and 20: UNEP World Conservation Monitoring
Page 21 and 22: to look back at change over time by
Page 23 and 24: BirdLife International, 11 th Febru
Page 25 and 26: Fauna & Flora International (FFI),
Page 27: Habitat extent and structure. Remot

What do conservation practitioners want from remote sensing?

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