Unmanned Aerial Systems for Wildland and Forest Fires

Wildfires represent an important natural risk causing economic losses, human death and important environmental damage. In recent years, we witness an increase in fire intensity and frequency. Research has been conducted towards the development of dedicated solutions for wildland and forest fire assistance and fighting. Systems were proposed for the remote detection and tracking of fires. These systems have shown improvements in the area of efficient data collection and fire characterization within small scale environments. However, wildfires cover large areas making some of the proposed ground-based systems unsuitable for optimal coverage. To tackle this limitation, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) were proposed. UAS have proven to be useful due to their maneuverability, allowing for the implementation of remote sensing, allocation strategies and task planning. They can provide a low-cost alternative for the prevention, detection and real-time support of firefighting. In this paper we review previous work related to the use of UAS in wildfires. Onboard sensor instruments, fire perception algorithms and coordination strategies are considered. In addition, we present some of the recent frameworks proposing the use of both aerial vehicles and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UV) for a more efficient wildland firefighting strategy at a larger scale.Comment: A recent published version of this paper is available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/drones501001

Identification of temporary livestock enclosures in Kenya from multi-temporal PlanetScope imagery

The use of night-time livestock enclosures, often referred to as “bomas”, “corrals”, or “kraals”, is a common practice across African rangelands. Bomas protect livestock from predation by wildlife and potential theft. Due to the concentration of animal faeces inside bomas, they not only become nutrient-rich patches that can add to biodiversity, but also hotspots for the emission of nitrous oxide (N$_{2}$O), an important greenhouse gas, especially when animals are kept inside for long periods. To provide an accurate estimate of such emissions for wider landscapes, bomas need to be accounted for. Moreover, initial experiments indicated that more frequent shifts in the boma locations could help to reduce N$_{2}$O emissions. This stresses the need for better understanding where bomas are located, their numbers, as well as when they are actively used. Given the recent advances in satellite technology, resulting in high-frequent spectral measurements at fine spatial resolution, solutions to address these needs are now within reach. This study is a first effort to map and monitor the appearance of bomas with the use of satellite image time series. Our main dataset was a dense times series of 3 m resolution PlanetScope multispectral imagery. In addition, a reference dataset of boma and non-boma locations was created using GPS-collar tracking data and 0.5 m resolution Pléiades imagery. The reduction of vegetation cover and increase of organic material following boma installation result in typical spectral changes when contrasted against its surroundings. Based on these spectral changes we devised an empirical approach to infer approximate boma installation dates from PlanetScope\u27s near infrared (NIR) band and used our reference dataset for setting optimal parameter values. A NIR spatial difference index resulted in clear temporal patterns, which were more apparent during the wet season. At landscape scale our approach reveals clear spatio-temporal patterns of boma installation, which could not be revealed from less frequent sub-meter resolution imagery alone. While further improvements are possible, we show that small-sized (150–500 m$^{2}$) temporary surface changes, such as those that occur when pastoralists use mobile bomas, can be detected with dense image time series like those offered by the PlanetScope constellation. In future, this could lead to better assessment of a) spatio-temporal livestock distribution, b) the contribution of bomas to N$_{2}$O emissions and soil fertility at landscape scale, and c) the uptake of enclosure rotation practices at large spatial scales

Applications of Satellite Earth Observations section - NEODAAS: Providing satellite data for efficient research

The NERC Earth Observation Data Acquisition and Analysis Service (NEODAAS) provides a central point of Earth Observation (EO) satellite data access and expertise for UK researchers. The service is tailored to individual users’ requirements to ensure that researchers can focus effort on their science, rather than struggling with correct use of unfamiliar satellite data

Satellite monitoring of harmful algal blooms (HABs) to protect the aquaculture industry

Harmful algal blooms (HABs) can cause sudden and considerable losses to fish farms, for example 500,000 salmon during one bloom in Shetland, and also present a threat to human health. Early warning allows the industry to take protective measures. PML's satellite monitoring of HABs is now funded by the Scottish aquaculture industry. The service involves processing EO ocean colour data from NASA and ESA in near-real time, and applying novel techniques for discriminating certain harmful blooms from harmless algae. Within the AQUA-USERS project we are extending this capability to further HAB species within several European countries

Estimating hidden fishing activity hotspots from vessel transmitted data

Monitoring fishery activity is essential for resource planning and guaranteeing fisheries sustainability. Large fishing vessels constantly and continuously communicate their positions via Automatic Identification System (AIS) or Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMSs). These systems can use radio or Global Positioning System (GPS) devices to transmit data. Processing and integrating these big data with other fisheries data allows for exploring the relations between socio-economic and ecosystem assets in marine areas, which is fundamental in fishery monitoring. In this context, estimating actual fishing activity from time series of AIS and VMS data would enhance the correct identification of fishing activity patterns and help assess regulations' effectiveness. However, these data might contain gaps because of technical issues such as limited coverage of the terrestrial receivers or saturated transmission bands. Other sources of data gaps are adverse meteorological conditions and voluntary switch-offs. Gaps may also include hidden (unreported) fishing activity whose quantification would improve actual fishing activity estimation. This paper presents a workflow for AIS/VMS big-data analysis that estimates potential unreported fishing activity hotspots in a marine area. The workflow uses a statistical spatial analysis over vessel speeds and coordinates and a multi-source data integration approach that can work on multiple areas and multiple analysis scales. Specifically, it (i) estimates fishing activity locations and rebuilds data gaps, (ii) estimates the potential unreported fishing hour distribution and the unreported-over-total ratio of fishing hours at a 0.01 degrees spatial resolution, (iii) identifies potential unreported fishing activity hotspots, (iv) extracts the stocks involved in these hotspots (using global-scale repositories of stock and species observation data) and raises an alert about their possible endangered, threatened, and protected (ETP) status. The workflow is also a free-to-use Web Service running on an open science-compliant cloud computing platform with a Web Processing Service (WPS) standard interface, allowing efficient big data processing. As a study case, we focussed on the Adriatic Sea. We reconstructed the monthly reported and potential unreported trawling activity in 2019, using terrestrial AIS data with a 5-min sampling period, containing similar to 50 million records transmitted by similar to 1,600 vessels. The results highlight that the unreported fishing activity hotspots especially impacted Italian coasts and some forbidden and protected areas. The potential unreported activity involved 33 stocks, four of which were ETP species in the basin. The extracted information agreed with expert studies, and the estimated trawling patterns agreed with those produced by the Global Fishing Watch

Seafloor communities and habitat disturbances in the North Sea

Many different organisms live at the seafloor. These organisms are a crucial component of marine ecosystems, as they play an important role in the food web. Their abundance is strongly regulated by the environment, as each species is adapted to certain conditions. Whereas some species thrive in deep and calm waters, others flourish under more dynamic conditions with waves and currents. The environment of a species also affects the impact of human activities, like demersal fisheries. Demersal fisheries target groundfish, but damage other species and the structure of the seafloor in the catching process. The impacts of this are larger for species in calm environments than for species in dynamic areas. In this thesis, I combined detailed observations of organisms at the seafloor with fisheries data and environmental conditions. I demonstrated that environmental conditions structured the distribution of seafloor-disturbing fisheries, and that such fisheries impact species differently depending on their way of life. The discovery of ross worm reefs in the southern North Sea revealed the importance of seafloor structures as environmental variables in the structuring of both fisheries and organisms. Here, seafloor structures like large sand dunes and smaller sand waves and megaripples create a very heterogeneous landscape. The distribution of the ecological valuable reefs matched the pattern created by megaripples. The troughs of different seafloor structures had higher organism abundancies, which may also explain the higher fishing intensity in the sand dunes troughs. I therefore argue that management should account for such local environmental differences

Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining for Shared Mobility and Connected and Automated Vehicle Applications

The rapid development of shared mobility and connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) has not only brought new intelligent transportation system (ITS) challenges with the new types of mobility, but also brought a huge opportunity to accelerate the connectivity and informatization of transportation systems, particularly when we consider all the new forms of data that is becoming available. The primary challenge is how to take advantage of the enormous amount of data to discover knowledge, build effective models, and develop impactful applications. With the theoretical and experimental progress being made over the last two decades, data mining and machine learning technologies have become key approaches for parsing data, understanding information, and making informed decisions, especially as the rise of deep learning algorithms bringing new levels of performance to the analysis of large datasets. The combination of data mining and ITS can greatly benefit research and advances in shared mobility and CAVs.This dissertation focuses on knowledge discovery and data mining for shared mobility and CAV applications. When considering big data associated with shared mobility operations and CAV research, data mining techniques can be customized with transportation knowledge to initially parse the data. Then machine learning methods can be used to model the parsed data to elicit hidden knowledge. Finally, the discovered knowledge and extracted information can help in the development of effective shared mobility and CAV applications to achieve the goals of a safer, faster, and more eco-friendly transportation systems.In this dissertation, there are four main sections that are addressed. First, new methodologies are introduced for extracting lane-level road features from rough crowdsourced GPS trajectories via data mining, which is subsequently used as the fundamental information for CAV applications. The proposed method results in decimeter level accuracy, which satisfies the positioning needs for many macroscopic and microscopic shared mobility and CAV applications. Second, macroscopic ride-hailing service big data has been analyzed for demand prediction, vehicle operation, and system efficiency monitoring. The proposed deep learning algorithms increase the ride-hailing demand prediction accuracy to 80% and can help the fleet dispatching system reduce 30% of vacant travel distance. Third, microscopic automated vehicle perception data has been analyzed for a real-time computer vision system that can be used for lane change behavior detection. The proposed deep learning design combines the residual neural network image input with time serious control data and reaches 95% of lane change behavior prediction accuracy. Last but not least, new ride sharing and CAV applications have been simulated in a behavior modeling framework to analyze the impact of mobility and energy consumption, which addresses key barriers by quantifying the transportation system-wide mobility, energy and behavior impacts from new mobility technologies using real-world data

Development of an industry-based habitat mapping/monitoring system FRDC Project No 2011/021

Mapping / monitoring in the marine environment can be a very costly exercise. Scientists from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development; Fisheries Division (FD) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) have developed a small, low-cost automated camera system that, when fitted to commercial fishing gear, can achieve this at minimal cost. The POTBot (Pictures Of The Bottom) system is a cheap, small “smart” camera that can track its position globally and the date and time, and can record high-definition video and water temperature readings when it determines it has been deployed into the ocean