GIS, or Geographic Information Systems, play a crucial role in nature conservation. Every day, mapping and spatial analysis are aiding conservation decisions, protected areas designation, habitat management on reserves and monitoring of wildlife populations, to name but a few examples. Want to learn more about how remote sensing is used in conservation? Check out the first two episodes of this season of Tech Tutors, where our Tutors answer the questions How do I use open source remote sensing data to monitor fishing? and How do I access and visualise open source remote sensing data in Google Earth Engine?
You can also check out our Virtual Meetup Archive for a range of panels that overlap with Remote Sensing & GIS topics.
Data Science | Remote Sensing | GIS | Geospatial Cloud Computing | Big Data
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Conservation Biologist
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I'm a Mechanical Engineer and I have been involved in test and measurement, IT maintenance consulting, database development, field installation, field maintenance, systems analysis, theater composition and an active synthesist. Currently engaged in conservation volunteer work
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Msc student on wildlife management and conservation
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I am an Ecologist with specialisation in GIS and programming with keen interest in drones.
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Geographer, Program Manager, Engineering Manager
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Do you have photos and videos of your conservation tech work? We want to include them in a conservation technology showcase video
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Read in detail about how to use The Inventory, our new living directory of conservation technology tools, organisations, and R&D projects.
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The Inventory is your one-stop shop for conservation technology tools, organisations, and R&D projects. Start contributing to it now!
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Technology to End the Sixth Mass Extinction. Salary: $132 - $160k; Location: Seattle WA; 7+ years of experience in hardware product development and manufacturing; View post for full job description
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What better way to conclude InConversation Season 1: East Africa than by delving into the exciting yet complex world of #tech4wildlife innovation across the region. This episode is going to be double the insight and...
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Review by Professor Iain H Woodhouse
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The incumbent will develop models and metrics that can be used to shape conservation policy using multiple data sources including camera traps, movement data and citizen science concerning the diversity and...
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Careers
The Smithsonian National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute is seeking a Program Manager to help coordinate multiple organizations in an effort to integrate movement data & camera trap data with global...
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The Smithsonian National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to help us integrate movement data & camera trap data with global conservation policy.
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Watch our interview with pioneering young Tanzanian vulture researcher Vainess Laizer! Her research investigating the breeding success of white-backed vultures in the western corridor of the Serengeti ecosystem using...
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Recently updated products
Description | Activity | Replies | Groups | Updated |
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Advance Object-Based Classification of Delta Region Sindh. A project completed by COGE team. If you have any queries please contact :... |
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Remote Sensing & GIS | 8 years 3 months ago | |
Greetings all! I just received this invitation from Google. Feel free to distribute to your colleages. Applications due by March 15.... |
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Remote Sensing & GIS | 8 years 3 months ago | |
Learn how to use the power of storytelling for conservation in a special webinar on January 27th, hosted by Ryan Valdez of... |
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Remote Sensing & GIS | 8 years 4 months ago | |
Satellite imagery grants from the Digital Globe Foundation may be of interest to Remote Sensing group members: "The... |
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Remote Sensing & GIS | 8 years 4 months ago | |
ESRI's Conservation Program (ECP) grants may be useful to colleagues in the Remote Sensing group. It looks like ArcGIS.com... |
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Remote Sensing & GIS | 8 years 4 months ago | |
A couple of months ago I had the priviledge of attending the Geo for Good conference put on by the Google Earth Outreach team at Google HQ... |
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Remote Sensing & GIS | 8 years 4 months ago | |
http://news.mongabay.com/2015/12/mapbiomas-new-mapping-platform-will-track-annual-deforestation-in-brazil/ New mapping... |
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Remote Sensing & GIS | 8 years 5 months ago | |
Watch footage here of John Amos, President of Sky Truth, speaking on Cheap Space, DIY Imaging and Big Data... |
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Remote Sensing & GIS | 8 years 6 months ago |
Python for Geographers (video)
21 March 2023 4:56pm
ARSET - Fundamentals of Machine Learning for Earth Science
21 March 2023 4:49pm
Monitoring airborne biomass
14 March 2023 10:30am
20 March 2023 2:44pm
Our project in very short is, setting up a sensor network for monitoring airborne biomass, mainly insects, birds and bats in near realtime, and to develop a forecast model to be used for mitigation with respect various types of human-wildlife conflicts (e.g. wind power, pesticide application, aviation). Our expertise is mainly in radar monitoring, but we aim on add insect camera information to be merged with the quantitative biomass measeurments by radar.
Google Earth Engine vs Microsoft's Planetary Computer: Which do I use?
3 March 2023 11:38am
12 March 2023 3:21pm
Dear @Frank_van_der_Most and @StephODonnell , thanks for the comments. Regarding the importance of local knowledge in EO data classification, some thoughts follow:
1. Consider two AI applications: large language models (LLM) and object recognition in images. LLMs such as ChatGPT use words to predict the next word. Since language is its own meta-language, LLMs rely on the fact that our understanding of written text is direct. There are no intermediaries between humans and the printed page.
2. Object recognition in images (e.g., face recognition) is another kind of AI application where there is an implicit assumption: there are objects (faces, cars, etc) in the image and the role of the algorithm is to distinguish them from the background (considered as unwanted noise).
3. Classification and interpretation of Earth observation data, by contrast, uses a different paradigm. In principle, all of the data is informative. Unlike face recognition, there is no background. Every pixel counts. Pixel values are not words, but measures of reflections, emissions or echoes of the Earth's surface.
4. We use words to describe the reality external to us. The variety of nature is such that we have to use simplifications and taxonomies to describe our landscapes. Take the word "forest". As Chazdon et al. question in their 2016 paper, "when is a forest a forest?" The answer is: it depends on who is asking the question.
5. There have been many attempts to join pixel values with landscape descriptions. e.g, "pixels with NDVI > 0.75 are forests". Do they? What about dry forests that only have high NDVI values in the wet season? So far, all attempts to use direct links between pixel values and landscapes have failed the test of rigour.
6. Another example is the algorithm used by Global Forest Watch to measure tree cover gain and loss. As explained in the link below, "Not all tree cover is a forest". As GFW acknowledges, their algorithm has problems distinguishing forest from oil-palm plantation and to identify trees in dry forests (see more at https://research.wri.org/gfr/data-methods?utm_campaign=treecoverloss2021&Limitations#limitations).
7. Some of you may know the attempt made by FAO to standardize land use and land cover classification using the LCCS ontology. LCCS describes land properties based only on land cover types, disregarding land use. For example, LCCS does not distinguish ‘pasture’ from ‘natural grasslands’; it labels both as herbaceous land cover types. Classification in LCCS has no temporal reference. For a more detailed criticism, see Camara (2020).
8. There is no shortage of global land cover and land use maps. While these maps provide a general sense of the global picture, very few (if any) have local significance. As those in the WILDLABS community know, local context matters. My favourite example is the Brazilian Cerrado, an endangered biodiversity hotspot. In the last decades, many areas of natural vegetation in the Cerrado have been converted to pasture for cattle raising. However, global maps inevitably label both pastures and natural Cerrado vegetation as "grasslands". Clearly, such data is hardly usable for supporting studies and public policies in the Cerrado.
9. What is the alternative for mapping areas such as the Cerrado? The only way I see is gathering experts who understand the uniqueness of each ecosystem and try to relate each landscape to signals measured by EO satellites. This is hard and painstaking work, which many iterations.
10. The recent availability of open big EO data is a blessing and a curse. Using time series, experts can use the temporal evolution of the pixel values to improve the discriminatory power of EO data. Take the distinction between herbaceous pasture and natural Cerrado vegetation. All savannas of the planet (including the Cerrado) have evolved to be resilient to the dry season and to fire. Therefore, while in the wet season it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between herbaceous pasture and natural Cerrado, such distinction increases in the dry season. This is a case of where time series and big data improve the classification results.
11. Big EO data is also a curse, since it requires experts to rethink how to use EO data for land classification. Selecting training samples by looking at a single image is too simplistic when we are classifying time series. Linking the values of a time series to the temporal evolution of the landscapes requires relearning what EO data is.
Long story short: using Earth observation for conservation studies and public policy making is hard. It requires the combination of big EO data, good algorithms, and lots of expertise to understand the information inherent in the data. A nice challenge to all!
References cited:
Chazdon et al., "When is a forest a forest? Forest concepts and definitions in the era of forest and landscape restoration". Ambio, 45, p 538–550 (2016).
Camara, "On the semantics of big Earth observation data for land classification". Journal of Spatial Information Science, 20 (2020).
17 March 2023 9:33am
18 March 2023 12:48am
Dear @gcamara , thank you so much for your elaborate reply. I am afraid, I am still overlooking something. Do I understand correctly, that the relationship between EO and local expertise is that one needs the local expertise to inform the interpretation of the EO data? But then every area that is different from its neighbors ( easier said than established ) needs a representative. That means that one needs a huge number of representatives to cover the entire earth. If that is organized, then the knowledge is collected through these people. How are the images then still useful? For the precision and the quantification?
GIS for a Sustainable World
16 March 2023 4:28pm
Proposals wanted for Innovation in Practice
6 March 2023 10:34pm
How do I get started with Landsat for Land use and Land cover mapping?
6 March 2023 10:15am
The WILDLABS Variety Hour: February 2023 - YouTube
3 March 2023 11:24am
Last week's Variety Hour is now up on youtube. It was a great session - we covered Moveapps, an awesome community project building marine biologgers, chatgpt and google earth engine vs microsoft's planetary computer. Thanks everyone who came along!
Satellite Remote Sensing Solutions and Challenges
1 March 2023 11:53pm
Drones for GIS - Best Practice
17 October 2017 8:22am
31 March 2020 10:38am
We've just created a new version. General updates throughout
version notes
General refresh and update based on knowledge acquired over the last couple of years
Checked links
Updated CAA regulations, drone model advice including Yuneec, sensor advice (including thermal), classification advice, hydrological modelling advice, and nest survey info
15 February 2023 9:39am
This thread continues to be one of the most useful, evergreen resources - even 5+ years later! Who would have thought?
I was speaking to a colleague from another conservation ngo last week - and it came out that she was having to start from scratch developing some consistent internal guidance to support staff members using drones. I've poiinted her here and it's already been super useful, but I'm curious if anyone has newer guidance they've developed to support drone use their organisation that they'd be able to share? If you've updated your guidance, what have you changed or found to be most important?
Reinvigorating this thread might turn out to be super useful for lots of folk and save a lot of time in developing supporting documentation - I appreciate anyone who is able to share!
Thanks
Steph
24 February 2023 12:30pm
Hi all,
I've been quickly developing in-house drone services in the UK for Providence Ecological and have found some useful information for building a workflow with Rich Charpentier's YouTube channel. There are loads of good resources on YouTube but Rich's channel seems to be more useful with regard to budget/free software etc.
It has occurred to me that there may not be very good "Best Practice" guidance for drone pilots with regard to wildlife disturbance so when considering employing a drone pilot, please bear this in mind. It is useful to talk through their experience of avoiding/mitigating disturbance to wildlife during drone operations asnd provide guidance where you feel it is required.
Hopefully this is helpful!
Mobilising East African nature restoration professionals
21 February 2023 3:57pm
Texas Chapter of The Wildlife Society’s Annual Meeting 2023
20 February 2023 10:56pm
Download Now: A Best Practice Guide to Satellite Technologies for Tracking Wildlife
17 February 2023 10:29am
17 February 2023 11:34am
20 February 2023 9:34am
Catch up with The Variety Hour: February 2023
14 February 2023 6:26pm
AniMove 2022 Course Lectures Available to Stream
10 February 2023 1:27pm
Recommendations about online courses on GPS wildlife tracking?
8 February 2023 11:28am
8 February 2023 2:39pm
Hi Silvesru,
We're hosting a tutorial tomorrow about how to use GPS satellite tages to monitor giraffe - this could be a good starting point! If you check out our youtube channel we have a lot of other talks about selecting and using tags on different species. See the links below
Steph
10 February 2023 12:13pm
Animove is running a course this summer (costs) though also has free online materials (lots of videos, linked below). Requires advanced R-coding skills to start with, if that suits you.
https://streaming.uni-konstanz.de/talks-und-events/2022/animove-2022/
10 February 2023 1:12pm
Oh good call! I'll add that to our events calendar as well :)
How to conduct rapid eligibility assessments for forest carbon projects using geospatial data
3 February 2023 3:32pm
Consultancy opportunity: Wildlife monitoring specialist
31 January 2023 11:26am
Gender Equality in Conservation
30 January 2023 10:27am
International Congress for Conservation Biology
16 January 2023 2:53pm
Global Fishing Watch's Marine Manager Raises the Bar on Ocean Monitoring
13 January 2023 12:09am
An online portal to help governments, researchers, conservation advocates & others monitor activity throughout the world’s marine environment, as well as design & implement protected areas. The Marine Manager is now open to anyone. Marine Manager provides users with a trove of human activity and environmental insights.
New Paper - Evaluation of thermal imaging as a tool for assessing occupancy of enclosed nests
13 January 2023 12:06am
The authors "tested the use of a thermal imager to assess the occupancy of enclosed nests, using nest-box populations of small passerines. Based on a thermal image of each nest box, observers were able to predict nest-box occupancy with a combined success rate of 85.9%."
Conservation Technology Intern (Vietnam)
11 January 2023 5:00pm
Help : Topics in Remote Sensing and Management of Protected Areas
10 January 2023 11:04am
Join NASA’s harmful algal bloom ML challenge and win prizes!
15 December 2022 7:56pm
Help - Innovative ways to track elephant movement
28 October 2022 4:50pm
4 November 2022 5:24pm
Why would you want to avoid alerting the rangers ?
You don't need high tech for this; elephants leave very obvious tracks and sign.
7 November 2022 12:52am
Hi Tyler,
Would like to introduce you to Ceres Tags products
- Ceres Tags products come in boxes of 5, 10 and 24.
- There are some software partners such as Earthranger, Mapipedia and possibly CiboLabs that would be able to assist you with your mapping vegetation requirements
- Ceres Tag does not require any towers, base stations and infrastructure. This allows you to see any movements from the heard outside of their normal herd (boundary alerts), and you will not be disturbing any of the flora and fauna with infrastructure set up.
- For the timing you are looking at, Ceres Wild pings directly to satellite 24 times a day. For Ceres Trace and Ceres Ranch there are 4 within 24 hours. Taking into consideration, when you set up alert areas, you will get them directly to your phone/laptop via your software of choice
- Ceres Ranch is a reusable tag that has just been launched. Use it on this project, remove the tag and then use the tag on your next project
- The software you choose will assist with the history of your animal movements. Ceres Tag is integrated with 11 software partners and in-development with 18 software partners https://cerestag.com/pages/software-partners
- Understanding it is a short-term project, you would be able to use Ceres Tags products without the additional expense of setting up and removing infrastructure- towers, gateways
- With Ceres Tag, you are purchasing the box of tags and picking a suitable software to deliver the information you require. On average, a box of 10 Ceres Trace Tags, is the same as 1 LoRaWAN tower.
Live Q&A Discussion on Ceres Tag: An animal monitoring Solution! | WILDLABS
Hey Everyone,Are you ready for this next Live Q&A Session? If you're looking for an effective animal monitoring solution, you might want to Join us here in a few minutes at 9am EAT|4pm AEST where Lewis Frost, COO of Ceres Tag, will help us unpack the IoT devices they have for animal monitoring.In this session, Lewis will take us through the features of Ceres Tag, some of their interesting projects so far, some models on animal monitoring, factors to consider when choosing an animal monitoring tag, and much more! A few things you need to know about the Live Q&A session:The session will be moderated, but you can ask questions during and after the session e.g. If you need clarification on a question/answer, you are free to ask. To ask a question that is linked to a specific answer, kindly always press the ‘Reply to @Frostl007' button, type in your question then save to post it.To ensure a proper flow of the discussion, kindly be sure to use the 'Reply to @Frostl007' Before moving to each next question, we will give a ~3 minute window to allow you to ask any questions you have, but if you miss that window, you are totally okay asking the question afterwards.If you have any trouble viewing the questions or replies, please try and Refresh the page If you are present in this session and don’t have any comments, we’d be very happy to see you react using an emoji so that we know you are following through the session! I'm really looking forward to an amazing discussion!Thank you,Netty.
wildlabsnet
14 December 2022 10:49am
I just came across this interesting paper in which seismic monotoring of animals like elephants was mentioned.
This is the study refered to:
Seismic savanna: machine learning for classifying wildlife and behaviours using ground‐based vibration field recordings
Our planet is facing its sixth mass extinction, with hundreds of species disappearing largely because of human activity. To mitigate this existential threat of biodiversity loss, we must monitor and ...
ZSL PublicationsCheers,
Lars
Workshop Invite: Building Partnerships between Conservation Tech and the UK Space Sector
22 September 2022 3:50pm
5 December 2022 3:10pm
Hi Steph,
If it's not too late, I'm very interested in this workshop.
Best,
V
6 December 2022 5:52pm
Hey Vance! We hosted the workshop a few weeks ago, but we're doing follow up calls and future meetings. I'll loop you into the next call!
Steph
12 December 2022 12:03am
Hi Steph. Would be interested also.
The force is strong with space lasers helping researchers map the Amazon in 3D
2 December 2022 1:16am
The International Space Station's GEDI instrument uses lasers to gather data on deforestation and impacts on atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide to highlight key areas to conserve.
Tech and Biodiversity Conference, London
15 November 2022 2:07pm
14 March 2023 1:34pm
Looks like you want to have a read of this thread:
Project introductions and updates | WILDLABS
Tell us about your project!If you are just starting out with autonomous camera traps for insects, or if you are a seasoned expert, this is the place to share your projects with the rest of the community. Tell us what your project is aiming to achieveWhere is it based and who is involved?If you are looking for advise or feedback be sure to make it clear what you would like to knowPlease come back once you have some results to share your successes and challenges!
wildlabsnet