Abstract
Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), or drone technologies, with their high spatial resolution, temporal flexibility, and ability to repeat photogrammetry, afford a significant advancement in other remote sensing approaches for coastal mapping, habitat monitoring, and environmental management. However, geographical drone mapping and in situ fieldwork often come with a steep learning curve requiring a background in drone operations, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing and related analytical techniques. Such a learning curve can be an obstacle for field implementation for researchers, community organizations and citizen scientists wishing to include introductory drone operations into their work. In this study, we develop a comprehensive drone training program for research partners and community members to use cost-effective, consumer-quality drones to engage in introductory drone mapping of coastal seagrass monitoring sites along the west coast of North America. As a first step toward a longer-term Public Participation GIS process in the study area, the training program includes lessons for beginner drone users related to flying drones, autonomous route planning and mapping, field safety, GIS analysis, image correction and processing, and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification and regulations. Training our research partners and students, who are in most cases novice users, is the first step in a larger process to increase participation in a broader project for seagrass monitoring in our case study. While our training program originated in the United States, we discuss our experiences for research partners and communities around the globe to become more confident in introductory drone operations for basic science. In particular, our work targets novice users without a strong background in geographic research or remote sensing. Such training provides technical guidance on the implementation of a drone mapping program for coastal research, and synthesizes our approaches to provide broad guidance for using drones in support of a developing Public Participation GIS process.
Highlights
Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (UAV), known as small Unmanned Aerial Systems, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or drones, are being embraced as an important tool to enable PublicParticipation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS), a body of scholarship emphasizing open dataDrones 2020, 4, 70 ; doi:10.3390/drones4040070 www.mdpi.com/journal/dronesDrones 2020, 4, 70 practices and collaborative methods that include scientists and non-scientists in action-oriented research [1,2,3]
Our work suggests that seagrass monitoring field teams can effectively participate in the entry-level stages of drone training and basic flight operations to support broader work at their field sites
As part of the drone training program, maps of seagrass beds were created in all regions for use in scientific analyses of disease ecology and other applications
Summary
Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (UAV), known as small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUASs), Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or drones, are being embraced as an important tool to enable PublicParticipation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS), a body of scholarship emphasizing open dataDrones 2020, 4, 70 ; doi:10.3390/drones4040070 www.mdpi.com/journal/dronesDrones 2020, 4, 70 practices and collaborative methods that include scientists and non-scientists in action-oriented research [1,2,3]. Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (UAV), known as small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUASs), Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) or drones, are being embraced as an important tool to enable Public. Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS), a body of scholarship emphasizing open data. Drones 2020, 4, 70 practices and collaborative methods that include scientists and non-scientists in action-oriented research [1,2,3]. We present an example from coastal research and monitoring where multidisciplinary researchers work together through an introductory drone mapping training program to understand the dynamics and drivers of coastal ecosystems, seagrass habitats, and develop a broader training framework for PPGIS that aims to eventually expand participatory engagement in seagrass research and monitoring. Habitats of seagrass support diverse and productive animal communities and provide several natural services to people, including commercial fisheries [6]. Seagrasses are declining in many regions due to a variety of human impacts [7]
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