Satellite remote sensing presents an amazing opportunity to inform biodiversity conservation by inexpensively gathering repeated monitoring information for vast areas of the Earth. However, these observations first need processing and interpretation if they are to inform conservation action. Through a series of case studies, this book presents detailed examples of the application of satellite remote sensing, covering both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, to conservation. The authors describe how collaboration between the remote sensing and conservation communities makes satellite data functional for operational conservation, and provide concrete examples of the lessons learned in addition to the scientific details. The editors, one at NASA and the other at a conservation NGO, have brought together leading researchers in conservation remote sensing to share their experiences from project development through to application, and emphasise the human side of these projects.

Explains how satellite remote sensing informs and helps deliver successful conservation management through case studies, which highlight practitioner experience.

Conservation Biology, techniques, applications.

The ability to anticipate the impacts of global environmental changes on natural resources is fundamental to designing appropriate and optimised adaptation and mitigation strategies. However, this requires the scientific community to have access to reliable, large-scale information on spatio-temporal changes in the distribution of abiotic conditions and on the distribution, structure, composition, and functioning of ecosystems. Satellite remote sensing can provide access to some of this fundamental data by offering repeatable, standardised, and verifiable information that is directly relevant to the monitoring and management of our natural capital. This book demonstrates how ecological knowledge and satellite-based information can be effectively combined to address a wide array of current natural resource management needs. By focusing on concrete applied examples in both the marine and terrestrial realms, it will help pave the way for developing enhanced levels of collaboration between the ecological and remote sensing communities, as well as shaping their future research directions. Satellite Remote Sensing and the Management of Natural Resources is primarily aimed at ecologists and remote sensing specialists, as well as policy makers and practitioners in the fields of conservation biology, biodiversity monitoring, and natural resource management.

The global loss of biodiversity is occurring at an unprecedented pace. Despite the considerable effort devoted to conservation science and management, we still lack even the most basic data on the distribution and density of the majority of plant and animal species, which in turn hampers our efforts to study changes over time. In addition, we often lack behavioural data from the very animals most influenced by environmental changes; this is largely due to the financial and logistical limitations associated with gathering scientific data on species that are cryptic, widely distributed, range over large areas, or negatively influenced by human presence. To overcome these limitations, conservationists are increasingly employing technology to facilitate such data collection. Innovative solutions have been driven by dramatic advances in the conservation-technology interface. The use of camera traps, acoustic sensors, satellite data, drones, and computer algorithms to analyse the large datasets collected are all becoming increasingly widespread. Although specialist books are available on some of these individual technologies, this is the first comprehensive text to describe the breadth of available technology for conservation and to evaluate its varied applications, bringing together a team of international experts using a diverse range of approaches. Conservation Technology is suitable for graduate level students, professional researchers, practitioners and field managers in the fields of ecology and conservation biology.

A Century of Geography at Stellenbosch University 1920-2020 focuses on the establishment and development of geography as an academic discipline at Stellenbosch, South Africa’s founding geography department. The ways in which the department currently operates are deemed fundamentally joined to its past and pave the way for the evolution of geography and its various subdisciplines going forward. The investigation seeks to highlight the development of the discipline and its institutionalisation as part of the academic offerings of the university, while providing details about the teaching and research conducted, as well as of the people who contributed to these endeavours. It also furnishes the academic geography community at Stellenbosch, and geography more broadly, with some insights into its past development and more recent changes, along with a complete bibliography of conducted research.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have already become an affordable and cost-efficient tool to quickly map a targeted area for many emerging applications in the arena of ecological monitoring and biodiversity conservation. Managers, owners, companies, and scientists are using professional drones equipped with high-resolution visible, multispectral, or thermal cameras to assess the state of ecosystems, the effect of disturbances, or the dynamics and changes within biological communities inter alia. We are now at a tipping point on the use of drones for these type of applications over natural areas. UAV missions are increasing but most of them are testing applicability. It is time now to move to frequent revisiting missions, aiding in the retrieval of important biophysical parameters in ecosystems or mapping species distributions. This Special Issue shows UAV applications contributing to a better understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem status, threats, changes, and trends. It documents the enhancement of knowledge in ecological integrity parameters mapping, long-term ecological monitoring based on drones, mapping of alien species spread and distribution, upscaling ecological variables from drone to satellite images: methods and approaches, rapid risk and disturbance assessment using drones, mapping albedo with UAVs, wildlife tracking, bird colony and chimpanzee nest mapping, habitat mapping and monitoring, and a review on drones for conservation in protected areas.

Satellite images acquired at night provide a visually arresting perspective of the Earth and the human activities that light up the otherwise mostly dark Earth. These night-time light satellite images can be compiled into a geospatial time series that represent an invaluable source of information for both the natural and social sciences. Night-time light remote sensing has been shown to be particularly useful for a range of natural science and social science applications, including studies relating to urban development, demography, sociology, fishing activity, light pollution and the consequences of civil war. Key sensors for these time-series include the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program’s Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Satellite’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Day/Night Band (Suomi NPP/VIIRS DNB). An increasing number of alternative sources are also available, including high spatial resolution and multispectral sensors. This book captures key methodological issues associated with pre-processing night-time light data, documents state of the art analysis methods, and explores a wide range of applications. Major sections focus on NPP/VIIRS DNB processing; inter-calibration between NPP/VIIRS and DMPS/OLS; applications associated with socio-economic activities, applications in monitoring urbanization; and fishing activity monitoring. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Remote Sensing.

This handbook is the first comprehensive overview of the field of satellite remote sensing for archaeology and how it can be applied to ongoing archaeological fieldwork projects across the globe. With a focus on practical uses of satellite remote sensing, Sarah H. Parcak evaluates satellite imagery types and remote sensing analysis techniques specific to the discovery, preservation, and management of archaeological sites.