The 36th International Symposium on Remote Sensing for Environment took place in May in Berlin. It is with more than 700 participants one of the biggest international remote sensing conferences focusing on environmental applications.
Three sessions covered different topics of applied remote sensing in Biodiversity and Conservation. These sessions were chaired and organized by Martin Wegmann, Matt Hansen, Woody Turner, Andrew Skidmore and Allison Leidner. The interest in these interdisciplinary sessions was surprisingly high considering the pure remote sensing scope of this symposium. A lot of discussions during the sessions as well as in the coffee brakes and in the evening showed the high interest and potential for this interdisciplinary research within the remote sensing community.
Within the Biodiversity and Conservation sessions new concepts as well as new remote sensing data sets and developments for combining biodiversity data with remote sensing were presented:
- Remote Sensing for Essential Biodiversity Variables
Skidmore A., Wegmann M., Mucher S.,
Pettorelli N., Wang T. - The Dynamic Habitat Index derived from three decades of MODIS and AVHRR data and its relationship to global patterns on mammal species richness
Radeloff V.C., Brooks T.M., Coops N.C., Hobi M., Kuemmerle T., Pidgeon A.M.,
Rondinini C., Suttidate N. - Biodiversity knowledge and loss of natural vegetation in protected areas in Sub-Saharan Africa
Szantoi Z., Stropp J., Brink A. - Tracing anthropogenic pressures on biodiversity in the African Sahelo-Saharan region – a case study for Niger based on radar imagery
Esch T., Duncan C., Heldens W., Marconcini M., Pettorelli N., Rabeil T., Wegmann M. - Discrete versus continuous spatial representation of habitats for modeling distribution patterns of avifauna
Sheeren D., Lefevre S., Bonthoux S. - Sensor requirements for biodiversity research.The role of spatial and spectral resolution in mapping habitat of zoological communities
Leutner B. F., Wegmann M., Müller J., Bachmann M., Dech S. - Scale dependency for assessment of biodiversity indicators from different remote sensing data sets
Ghosh A., Faßnacht F., Dawar S., Dees M., Maack J., Koch B. - High resolution mapping of chimpanzee habitat suitability
Jantz S., Pintea L., Nackoney J., Hansen M.C. - Earth Observation from two perspectives -combining space borne animal tracking and environmental monitoring – a case study on storks and cities.
Flack A., Wikelski M., Safi K., Esch T., Taubenboeck H., Wegmann M. - Modelling forage resources with airborne imaging spectroscopy: Implications for ungulate and ecosystem conservation
Schweiger A.K., Kneubühler M., Risch A.C., Schütz M., Haller R., Schaepman M.E. - Satellite telemetry reveals site fidelity and rainfall event triggers of directed movement of Palearctic migrant in southern African savannas
Mendelsohn S., de Klerk H. M., Meyburgh B., Mendelsohn J. - Satellite remote sensing of baleen whales; status and prospects
Fretwell P.T - eHabitat: Modelling of habitats types and similarities in protected areas globally by means of remote sensing
Martínez-López J., Bastin L., Dubois G. - Moreover further related topics were presented such as in the forest session
by Matt Hansen and Martin Wegmann on forest monitoring or in other sessions such as Brazilian dry forest: understanding climate changes and biodiversity dynamics using SEBAL algorithm and cloud computing by Rufino or Imaging Spectroscopy: a new era for biodiversity science and conservation by Somers B. and Asner G.P. - Moreover interdisciplinary training activities related to the above mentioned scientific topics were presented:
Combining Earth Observations with Animal tracking data- outlining the AniMove.org outreach and education approach
Wegmann M., Safi K., Pettorelli N.
The next ISRSE will take place in 2017 in South Africa and we try to have again a Biodiversity and Conservation session.
Martin Wegmann