Applications of Remote Sensing to Biodiversity Conservation

Remote sensing can be used to address a plethora of biodiversity conservation issues and is a valuable tool for scientists, conservation practitioners, land managers, and many others. Aquatic, atmospheric and terrestrial systems are all amenable to study with remote sensing techniques. However, remote sensing is not a panacea for all problems conservation biologists may encounter, and there are limitations to the technology. This module is primarily designed to introduce the applications of remote sensing to typical problems biodiversity conservation practitioners commonly encounter (for more basics, first see the module Introduction to Remote Sensing). An attempt has been made to utilize case studies on multiple topics to give a more detailed examination of the protocols, tools, and skills needed to pragmatically address problems. Notable examples include fire detection and monitoring, habitat assessment, landscape change detection, and monitoring oil spills.