Testing the use of unmanned aircraft systems for intertidal surveys - proof of concept
Project Description
Intertidal monitoring is essential to establish benchmarks and to monitor important resources that are particularly important to the people living in ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥'s coastal environments. One of the shortfalls of the traditional sampling typically conducted through on-the-ground surveys is the small area that can be feasibly monitored with limited people-power and time due to low tide series. What is needed is a cost-effective mechanism that can be used to survey larger areas during the short low tide time period. We are currently providing a proof of concept that unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are a cost-effective tool that can be used to 1) expand the typically small-scale (on the order of meters) monitoring with larger-scale (on the order of kilometers), high resolution imagery taken from low-flying UAS, and 2) monitor new areas where benchmark data are currently lacking. This projects links to and expands the Gulf Watch ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ intertidal monitoring that is currently being conducted in Kachemak Bay.
Project Funding
Coastal Marine Institute
Start Date: 2014-00-00
End Date: 2016-00-00
Konar B, K Iken, M Rogers and S Vanderwaal. (2015). "Testing the use of unmanned aircraft
systems for intertidal surveys: proof of concept". Oral Tidbit Presentation at the
Kachemak Bay Science Conference. March 2015.
Konar B, K Iken, M Rogers and S Vanderwaal. (2015). "Testing the use of unmanned aircraft
systems for intertidal surveys: proof of concept". Poster at the ÀÖ»¢Ö±²¥ Marine Science
Symposium. January 2015.
Iken K, Konar B, M Rogers and S Vanderwaal. (2015). "Testing the use of unmanned aircraft
systems for intertidal surveys: proof of concept". Oral Presentation at the Coastal
Marine Institute Annual Reivew. January 2015.
Research Team
Brenda Konar
Principal Investigator
Associate Dean of Research and Administration; Director of Institute of Marine Science; Director of Coastal Marine Institute; Professor
Specialties:
- phycology
- research scuba diving
- biodiversity
- monitoring programs
- nearshore ecology
- ecosystem change
- benthic ecology
- kelp forest ecology
Katrin Iken
Co-Principal Investigator
Professor
Specialties:
- Trophic interactions and food web analysis
- Benthic diversity and communities
- Stable isotope analysis
- Phycology and invertebrate ecology
- Shallow water ecology and deep-sea biology
- Polar marine biology