Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/K007874/1
[ECOSYSTEM/ENVIRONMENT] Object Based Approaches to Identifying and Monitoring Marine Ecosystem Services Using Remotely Sensed Data
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Professor C Fitzsimmons, Newcastle University, Sch of Natural & Environmental Sciences
- Grant held at:
- Newcastle University, Sch of Natural & Environmental Sciences
- Science Area:
- Marine
- Overall Classification:
- Marine
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Global Change
- Natural Resource Management
- Science Topics:
- None
- Abstract:
- Rationale Marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass, provide important ecosystem services to coastal communities in the UK Caribbean Overseas Territories (UKCOTs). These underpin sectors including fisheries and tourism, but are threatened by local activities like unsustainable fishing and pollution. To properly understand these resources and the impact of any management measures, monitoring is required, but costs of collecting baseline data and recurring monitoring surveys have been prohibitive. The overseas territories are increasingly important to the UK's international biodiversity commitments. Objectives This studentship aims to develop a novel ecosystem service based, low cost marine monitoring solution, based on satellite imagery. The student will pilot its use in the UKCOTs, where clear water and relatively cloudless skies facilitate the effective use of satellite imagery for analytical purposes. Novel object based imagery analysis (OBIA) techniques will be developed for the first time for the marine environment and validated using three UKCOTs case studies. The CASE partner, Environmental Systems (ES), has successfully developed and tested methods for terrestrial ecosystem service monitoring. Working with ES and the UKCOTs governments, the student will use satellite data to assess the suitability of the novel OBIA techniques for the marine environment. The use of e-cognition software will permit automated change detection, and using this facility, the student will develop monitoring protocols to be implemented in Anguilla, with potential for expansion to other OTs. Predictive models will then be developed for the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands, prior to the student visiting the islands to verify the maps produced. Marine ecological expertise, drawn from Newcastle University's 30 year history of tropical marine teaching and research, will support the student in this task. Methods Satellite technologies have long been employed for cost effective monitoring. However, such imagery needs to be converted into tangible information which can be utilised in conjunction with other data sets, within Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Increasing spatial resolutions have introduced the possibility of new analyses aimed at deriving objects composed of multiple pixels: object based image analysis (OBIA) (Blaschke 2010). Such techniques delineate readily usable objects from imagery while at the same time combining image processing and GIS functionalities in order to utilize spectral and contextual information in an integrative way. Images are segmented into discrete objects then ecologically meaningful rule based inference is used to developed meaningful maps in GIS . For example areas of coral cover may be identified as objects, then coral communities described by useful relations to proximate objects with which they are likely to have some sort of spatial relationship. For example: distance to fresh water input, distance to sediment source, depth of water, orientation to prevailing wind, would each have an impact on the likelihood of particular coral communities developing in particular areas. Once defined, such rules can be applied to multiple sets of imagery to detect changes over time. Site specific high-resolution images are captured and co-registered to corresponding data from another period. Semi-automatic change detection workflows are available in specialised software, these are then utilized to isolate time-lapse changes - monitoring the system. This process is efficient and has proven accurate in terrestrial systems, where such techniques are becoming common. Due to inherent challenges of analysing spectral signals through water and more costly ground truthing, marine applications remain rare, but the potential is considerable if appropriate methods can be developed. Such novel development is proposed here.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/K007874/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- DTG - directed
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Open CASE
This training grant award has a total value of £76,127
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Fees | Total - Student Stipend | Total - RTSG |
|---|---|---|
| £13,979 | £49,194 | £12,956 |
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