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 ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ'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 ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ 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

 

Publications and products

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 ÃÛÌÒÓ°Ïñ 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

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

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Katrin Iken

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

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