Table Of ContentRicardo Díaz-Delgado
Richard Lucas
Clive Hurford Editors
The Roles of
Remote Sensing
in Nature
Conservation
A Practical Guide and Case Studies
The Roles of Remote Sensing in Nature
Conservation
Ricardo Díaz-Delgado • Richard Lucas
Clive Hurford
Editors
The Roles of Remote
Sensing in Nature
Conservation
A Practical Guide and Case Studies
Editors
Ricardo Díaz-Delgado Richard Lucas
Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD), Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Biological, Earth and Environmental
Científicas (CSIC) Sciences
Sevilla, Spain The University of New South Wales
Kensington, NSW, Australia
Clive Hurford
Natural Resources Wales
Cardiff, Wales, UK
ISBN 978-3-319-64330-4 ISBN 978-3-319-64332-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-64332-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017953259
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017
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Many indigenous artists imagine themselves hovering over the land (country) observing both the
natural and metaphysical forms and markings of the landscape. These bird’s-eye views are charac-
teristic of a hunter and gatherer society. They read the earth surface closely for signs of life, for
tracking animals and for recognizing recent events.1
1 Extracted from https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/aboriginal-art-library/the-story-of-abo
riginal-art/
v
Acknowledgements
Books are usually the final expression of an idea, as was the case with this one.
From the moment of conception to its delivery and publication, many people have
emerged to silently push the editors in the right direction. This book has been
possible only because of the cooperation and support of very many friends and
colleagues over recent years. Most of them are devoted to conservation manage at
different scales and in different subject areas but with a common requirement: for
technology to enhance their day-to-day work. Thanks to these we decided to stop
the race and walk slowly to share our experiences in using remote sensing tools,
applications and products.
Initially our thanks must go to the corresponding authors who have worked
closely with us to provide the chapters for the book, namely, Jeroen Vanden Borre,
Pete Bunting, Anna Allard, Gwawr Jones, Katie Medcalf, Marcos Jiménez, Abigail
Sanders, Madhura Niphadkar, Jens Oldeland, Michael Schneider and Sonali Ghosh.
We are also grateful to the many associate authors involved in producing the chap-
ters of the book: these appear in the list of contributors.
Our gratitude is also extended to the publishing editors and technicians at
Springer NL, particularly Nel van der Werf, for their faith, encouragement, patience
and support throughout the writing and collation phases of the publication process.
Last but not least, we would like to thank our families, particularly Yolanda, Jara
and Chris, for their endless patience, particularly during the period of collating this
book. Furthermore, we will be forever grateful to those who decide to participate in
our living survey “Remote Sensing Awareness by Nature Conservation Staff and Its
Use”, available at https://goo.gl/GqC63f.
vii
Contents
Part I An Introduction to Remote Sensing Tools for Habitat
Mapping and Monitoring
Introducing the Book “The Roles of Remote Sensing
in Nature Conservation” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Ricardo Díaz-Delgado, Clive Hurford, and Richard Lucas
Towards a Mature Age of Remote Sensing for Natura 2000 Habitat
Conservation: Poor Method Transferability as a Prime Obstacle . . . . . . . . 11
Jeroen Vanden Borre, Toon Spanhove, and Birgen Haest
Pre-processing of Remotely Sensed Imagery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Peter Bunting
Long-Term Ecological Monitoring at the Landscape Scale for Nature
Conservation: The Example of Doñana Protected Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Ricardo Díaz-Delgado
Part II Habitat Case Studies
NILS – A Nationwide Inventory Program for Monitoring
the Conditions and Changes of the Swedish Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Anna Allard
Mapping Coastal Habitats in Wales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Gwawr Jones, Peter Bunting, and Clive Hurford
Integrated Monitoring for Biodiversity Using Remote Sensing:
From Local to Regional – A Case Study from Norfolk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Katie Medcalf, Jacqueline Parker, Gemma Bell, Paul Robinson,
Samuel Neal, Martin Horlock, and Johanna Breyer
Sub-pixel Mapping of Doñana Shrubland Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Marcos Jiménez and Ricardo Díaz-Delgado
ix
x Contents
Part III Species-Driven Remote Sensing and New
Technologies Studies
Mapping the Distribution of Understorey Rhododendron
Ponticum Using Low-Tech Multispectral UAV Derived Imagery . . . . . . . . . 167
Abigail Sanders
The Potential of UAV Derived Image Features for Discriminating
Savannah Tree Species . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
J. Oldeland, A. Große-Stoltenberg, L. Naftal, and B.J. Strohbach
A Toolbox for Remotely Monitoring Large Carnivores in Sweden . . . . . . . 203
Michael Schneider and Holger Dettki
Coupling Field Sampling with Earth Observation Increases
Understanding of Tiger Movement and Behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Sonali Ghosh and Richard Lucas
Improving the Accuracy of Bird Counts Using Manual
and Automated Counts in ImageJ: An Open-Source
Image Processing Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Clive Hurford
Using UAVs to Map Aquatic Bird Colonies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Ricardo Díaz-Delgado, Manuel Mañez, Antonio Martínez,
David Canal, Miguel Ferrer, and David Aragonés
Part IV L ooking Ahead Through Current Research Projects
and Expected Advances
Integrated Land Cover and Change Classifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Richard Lucas and Anthea Mitchell
Expected Advances in a Rapidly Developing Work Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Richard Lucas, Ricardo Díaz-Delgado, and Clive Hurford
Contributors
Editors
Ricardo Díaz-Delgado Laboratory of Remote Sensing and GIS and Natural
Processes Monitoring Team, ICTS-RBD, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC,
Sevilla, Spain
Richard Lucas Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and
Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW,
Australia
Clive Hurford Natural Resources Wales, Cardiff, Wales, UK
Authors
Anna Allard Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences, SLU, Umeå, Sweden
David Aragonés Laboratory of Remote Sensing and GIS, Estación Biológica de
Doñana, CSIC, Sevilla, Spain
Gemma Bell Environment Systems Ltd, Aberystwyth, UK
Johanna Breyer Environment Systems Ltd, Aberystwyth, UK
Peter Bunting Earth Observation and Ecosystem Dynamics Group, Department of
Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK
David Canal Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC, Sevilla, Spain
Holger Dettki Umeå Center for Wireless Remote Animal Monitoring
(UC-WRAM), Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish
University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden
Miguel Ferrer Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC, Sevilla, Spain
xi
xii Contributors
Sonali Ghosh Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
A. Große-Stoltenberg Applied Landscape Ecology and Ecological Planning
Institute of Landscape Ecology, Münster, Germany
Birgen Haest Remote Sensing Department, Flemish Institute for Technological
Research (VITO), Mol, Belgium
Bird Migration Department, Institute of Avian Research, Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Martin Horlock Norfolk Biodiversity Information Service, Norwich, UK
Marcos Jiménez Remote Sensing Area, National Institute of Aerospace
Technology (INTA), Madrid, Spain
Gwawr Jones Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Peterborough, UK
Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, UK
Manuel Mañez Natural Processes Monitoring Team, ICTS-RBD, Estación
Biológica de Doñana, CSIC, Sevilla, Spain
Antonio Martínez Natural Processes Monitoring Team, ICTS-RBD, Estación
Biológica de Doñana, CSIC, Sevilla, Spain
Katie Medcalf Environment Systems Ltd, Aberystwyth, UK
Anthea Mitchell Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and
Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW,
Australia
L. Naftal Faculty of Natural Resources and Spatial Sciences, Namibia University
of Science and Technology, Windhoek, Namibia
Samuel Neal Norfolk Biodiversity Information Service, Norwich, UK
J. Oldeland Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution of Plants, Biocentre Klein
Flottbek and Botanical Garden, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Jacqueline Parker Environment Systems Ltd, Aberystwyth, UK
Paul Robinson Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Peterborough, UK
Abigail Sanders Computing, Engineering and Science Department, Glyntaff,
Trefforest Campus, University of South Wales, South Glamorgan, Wales
Michael Schneider Västerbotten County Administration, Umeå, Sweden
Toon Spanhove Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Brussels,
Belgium
B.J. Strohbach Faculty of Natural Resources and Spatial Sciences, Namibia
University of Science and Technology, Windhoek, Namibia
Jeroen Vanden Borre Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Brussels,
Belgium
