Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for Monitoring Macroalgal Biodiversity: Comparison of RGB and Multispectral Imaging Sensors for Biodiversity Assessments

Developments in the capabilities and affordability of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have led to an explosion in their use for a range of ecological and agricultural remote sensing applications. However, the ubiquity of visible light cameras aboard readily available UAVs may be limiting the application of these devices for fine-scale, high taxonomic resolution monitoring. Here we compare the use of RGB and multispectral cameras deployed aboard UAVs for assessing intertidal and shallow subtidal marine macroalgae to a high taxonomic resolution. Our results show that the diverse spectral profiles of marine macroalgae naturally lend themselves to remote sensing and habitat classification. Furthermore, we show that biodiversity assessments, particularly in shallow subtidal habitats, are enhanced using six-band discrete wavelength multispectral sensors (81% accuracy, Cohen’s Kappa) compared to three-band broad channel RGB sensors (79% accuracy, Cohen’s Kappa) for 10 habitat classes. Combining broad band RGB signals and narrow band multispectral sensing further improved the accuracy of classification with a combined accuracy of 90% (Cohen’s Kappa). Despite notable improvements in accuracy with multispectral imaging, RGB sensors were highly capable of broad habitat classification and rivaled multispectral sensors for classifying intertidal habitats. High spatial scale monitoring of turbid exposed rocky reefs presents a unique set of challenges, but the limitations of more traditional methods can be overcome by targeting ideal conditions with UAVs

Lessons learnt from recent citizen science initiatives to document floods in France, Argentina and New Zealand

New communication and digital image technologies have enabled the public to produce and share large quantities of flood observations. Valuable hydraulic data such as water levels, flow rates, inundated areas, etc., can be extracted from photos and movies taken by citizens and help improve the analysis and modelling of flood hazard. We introduce recent citizen science initiatives which have been launched independently by research organisations to document floods in some catchments and urban areas of France, Argentina and New Zealand. Key drivers for success appear to be: a clear and simple procedure, suitable tools for data collecting and processing, an efficient communication plan, the support of local stakeholders, and the public awareness of natural hazards

Crowdsourced data for flood hydrology: Feedback from recent citizen science projects in Argentina, France and New Zealand

New communication and digital image technologies have enabled the public to produce large quantities of flood observations and share them through social media. In addition to flood incident reports, valuable hydraulic data such as the extent and depths of inundated areas and flow rate estimates can be computed using messages, photos and videos produced by citizens. Such crowdsourced data help improve the understanding and modelling of flood hazard. Since little feedback on similar initiatives is available, we introduce three recent citizen science projects which have been launched independently by research organisations to quantitatively document flood flows in catchments and urban areas of Argentina, France, and New Zealand. Key drivers for success appear to be: a clear and simple procedure, suitable tools for data collecting and processing, an efficient communication plan, the support of local stakeholders, and the public awareness of natural hazards.Fil: Le Coz, Jérôme. Irstea. UR HHLY. Hydrology-Hydraulics; Francia. NIWA. Applied Hydrology, Hydrodynamics; Nueva ZelandaFil: Patalano, Antoine. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología; ArgentinaFil: Collins, Daniel. NIWA. Applied Hydrology, Hydrodynamics; Nueva ZelandaFil: Guillén, Nicolás Federico. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Estudios Tecnológicos Sobre el Agua; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología; ArgentinaFil: García, Carlos Marcelo. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Estudios Tecnológicos Sobre el Agua; Argentina. Irstea. UR HHLY. Hydrology-Hydraulics; Francia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en Ingeniería y Tecnología; ArgentinaFil: Smart, Graeme M.. NIWA. Applied Hydrology, Hydrodynamics; Nueva ZelandaFil: Bind, Jochen. NIWA. Applied Hydrology, Hydrodynamics; Nueva ZelandaFil: Chiaverini, Antoine. Irstea. UR HHLY. Hydrology-Hydraulics; Francia. NIWA. Applied Hydrology, Hydrodynamics; Nueva ZelandaFil: Le Boursicaud, Raphaël. Irstea. UR HHLY. Hydrology-Hydraulics; FranciaFil: Dramais, Guillaume. Irstea. UR HHLY. Hydrology-Hydraulics; FranciaFil: Braud, Isabelle. Irstea. UR HHLY. Hydrology-Hydraulics; Franci

Lessons learnt from recent citizen science initiatives to document floods in France, Argentina and New Zealand

New communication and digital image technologies have enabled the public to produce and share large quantities of flood observations. Valuable hydraulic data such as water levels, flow rates, inundated areas, etc., can be extracted from photos and movies taken by citizens and help improve the analysis and modelling of flood hazard. We introduce recent citizen science initiatives which have been launched independently by research organisations to document floods in some catchments and urban areas of France, Argentina and New Zealand. Key drivers for success appear to be: a clear and simple procedure, suitable tools for data collecting and processing, an efficient communication plan, the support of local stakeholders, and the public awareness of natural hazards

Lessons learnt from recent citizen science initiatives to document floods in France, Argentina and New Zealand

New communication and digital image technologies have enabled the public to produce and share large quantities of flood observations. Valuable hydraulic data such as water levels, flow rates, inundated areas, etc., can be extracted from photos and movies taken by citizens and help improve the analysis and modelling of flood hazard. We introduce recent citizen science initiatives which have been launched independently by research organisations to document floods in some catchments and urban areas of France, Argentina and New Zealand. Key drivers for success appear to be: a clear and simple procedure, suitable tools for data collecting and processing, an efficient communication plan, the support of local stakeholders, and the public awareness of natural hazards