Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation

Ecology and conservation are both equally important fields of research. With concerns such as the changing climate, and the decline in biodiversity, the need to improvement our understanding of these two subject areas is always ongoing. Particularly so that natural resources and ecosystems can be managed in an efficient way and the sustainability of biodiversity can be maintained. In, general the study of these two areas requires manually collecting data in the field. Although this type of data collection is considered as highly accurate, it can be costly in terms of labour and time, and there can also exist restrictions in accessibility to target areas, therefore this approach is not considered practical for large scale studies. Remote sensing can overcome these restrictions, for example, remote sensing measurements are non-intrusive, the problem of accessibility is eliminated and measurements can be quick and made at large scales. With their constant development and improvement in technologies and data analysis, remote sensing techniques can be key in the areas of ecology and conservation. Further in this book, the ways in which remote sensing is used as a tool are presented, for example, land classification, the derivation of vegetation and other spectral indices, the mapping and monitoring of numerous processes (such as habitat use and erosion) and time series of various processes and temporal dynamics of landscapes (such as vegetation phenology). Numerous remote sensing data types are described as the inputs for the above techniques, such as multispectral spaceborne imagery, radar datasets, airborne LiDAR and hyperspectral imagery.