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SUMMARY:Wildlife from space: detecting\, monitoring and studying wildlife 
 using satellite imagery - Peter Fretwell\, British Antarctic Survey
DTSTART:20240205T190000Z
DTEND:20240205T210000Z
UID:TALK203668@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Peter Watson
DESCRIPTION:The advent of Very High Resolution optical satellite imagery h
 as enabled us to find and study wildlife in places and in ways that have n
 ot previously been possible. In theory\, any large animal (>1m) in open te
 rrain that has a high contrast with its surrounding environment could be m
 onitored by satellite. The technology is particularly useful in remote and
  hard to access locations\, or where multiple records would be difficult t
 o acquire through other means. The availability of large amounts of covera
 ge from satellites also enables regional and continental scale studies reg
 ardless of terrain\, borders\, or bureaucracy. Additionally\, satellites d
 o not disrupt behavior or disturb animals in ways that ships\, ground\, ai
 rcraft\, or UAVs often do. In future traditional wildlife line-transect po
 pulations studies could be replaced by total area studies from automated V
 HR satellite imagery.\n \nHowever\, the extensive amounts of data that can
  be collected\, coupled with the relatively low spatial resolution\, offer
  unique challenges and questions\; is multiple low-resolution data of ever
 ywhere better than high-quality sparse data? Cost of imagery and analytica
 l pipelines will also have to be addressed before optimal use of the techn
 ology can be made\, both by the satellite providers and the users. To util
 ize the full capacity of the technology it will need interdisciplinary sol
 utions using novel and groundbreaking machine learning techniques and big 
 data pipelines. Although often the techniques and methodologies can be tra
 nsferred between species\, many user cases show that behavioral knowledge 
 of each species is still key to understanding results. Conservation users\
 , remote sensing experts and machine learning practitioners will need to w
 ork together to build these data streams.\n\nIn this talk we will present 
 several groundbreaking examples from a decade of developing automated solu
 tions using VHR and medium resolution satellite imagery focusing initially
  on the recent case of emperor penguin breeding failure and moving on its 
 use in seals\, whales\, albatrosses and other species. We will discuss cha
 llenges\, advantages and future directions of the use of this potentially 
 revolutionary tool in an era of dynamic change for the population of many 
 species.\n
LOCATION:Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics\, Centr
 e for Mathematical Sciences\, University of Cambridge
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