From Puffins to Trees to Landscapes: Monitoring Nature Using Remote Sensing Data

puffins on a cliff

“Underground, Overground, Puffins... There's Three!": How can technology help improve the monitoring of UK puffin colonies? 

Speaker: Dr Amy Tyndall (GIS & EO Data Analyst), EOLAS Insight Ltd.

Working together with the School of Geosciences, EOLAS are creating a 'virtual fieldwork platform' that will assist ecologists with performing census counts of UK puffin colonies. This is part of the Scottish Government's annual CivTech programme, where open challenges are set with the aim of creating a viable commercial product as an output.

The role of geospatial data in zero-deforestation monitoring 

Speakers: Laura O'Brien, Senior Nature & Climate Consultant and Linsey Mortimer, Principal Nature & Climate Consultant.  

An overview of the benefits of geospatial data for real-time deforestation monitoring and compliance with zero-deforestation commodity legislation such as the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR). Explores the importance of regulation like EUDR, adaptation in supply chains including producer impacts, and maximising the use of satellite technology for sustainable forestry and agriculture.

The NERC Field Spectroscopy Facility: A Library of Remote Sensing Equipment and Expertise for Multidisciplinary Research

Speakers: Alex Merrington / Zoe Halem

The NERC Field Spectroscopy Facility is a “lending library” of high-quality remote sensing instrumentation (both ground based and UAV mounted), calibrated and maintained at the facility’s optical calibration laboratory. The facility provides this instrumentation, as well as training, software, and expert advice, for free to UK funded researchers. The science supported is multidisciplinary. In this presentation, we give an overview of how the equipment pool provided by the facility, and remote sensing technology in general, has facilitated world class science, with a focus on projects linked to natural capital, biodiversity, and carbon management.