Sorry for crossposting
The workshop:
Remote sensing to assess the distribution and
abundance of seabirds and marine mammals:
Possible applications for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
(UAVs)
will
be held in Stralsund/Germany, November 20/21 2008.
The assessment
of distribution and abundance of marine mammals and seabirds is essential for
the monitoring of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and crucial in the course of
Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), e.g. for the construction of wind
farms. The most commonly used techniques such as standard line transect surveys
with ships or planes are costly, heavily influenced by weather conditions and
can provide statistically sound results only for larger areas. This
necessitates thinking about new methods to enable researchers and consultancies
to find appropriate measures for nature protection as well as reasonable ways
to incorporate species protection into marine building activities.
A possible
solution for these specific problems could be the increased use of remote
sensing methods to reduce cost and logistic effort. While high-definition video
surveys have already been used for the monitoring of larger whales and seabirds
it is questionable, whether its resolution is adequate for smaller mammals and
birds. In these cases, the higher resolution of still images might be
preferable.
The following
workshop will focus on the current applications of remote sensing for marine
and terrestrial research and the possibilities to employ Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAVs) for such research aims.
One important
issue of this workshop will be the general discussion of remote sensing
technologies and their use in the research of marine mammals and avifauna. The
second part of the workshop will be dedicated to UAV-technologies, their
possible future use, availability to non-military users and current
limitations. Advantages and disadvantages of UAVs shall be highlighted.
The presentations will demonstrate the wide range of current and future
applications of UAV’s for monitoring environmental issues on sea and land.
The workshop is
organized by the German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund in cooperation with
the Rostock University. The workshop will be held in Stralsund, Germany in the
new-built facilities of the OZEANEUM from November 20th noon to
November 21st noon.
A detailed
workshop programme will be provided to registered participants four weeks in
advance. A preliminary is attached to this e-mail. The workshop fee will be 20
€ for participants. In accompany with the workshop, a special dinner will be
offered in the evening of the 20th November for an additional charge
of 28 €.
Best regards
Michael Dähne
and Görres Grenzdörffer
German Oceanographic Museum
Museum für Meereskunde und Fischerei ∙ Aquarium
Stiftung des bürgerlichen Rechts
Katharinenberg 14-20
18439 Stralsund
Tel.: +49 (3831) 2650-391
Fax: + 49 (3831) 2650-249
michael.daehne@meeresmuseum.de
Director
Dr. Harald Benke
Ust. ID Nr.: DE 162 772 269
Steuernr.: 082/141/02545