Remote Sensing for Ecology and Conservation

Conservation biology has grown from local and regional studies of single species, into a discipline concerned with global biodiversity. Increasingly, remote sensing provides a crucial tool for the effective collection of the information needed to set conservation priorities, evaluate human impacts on ecological systems, and develop conservation plans. The perceived complexities of remote sensing data and analysis often discourage conservation biologists and applied ecologists from using this valuable resource.

The objective of Remote Sensing for Ecology and Conservation is to make remote sensing tools accessible to conservation biologists so that they can assess what tools they need, have enough information to recognize uses and abuses, and know when to try to use the tools themselves versus when to get outside help. In order to reach this audience, Remote Sensing for Ecology and Conservation departs from the standard organization of a remote sensing textbook, and instead is structured by biomes to reflect the organization used in the disciplines of ecology and conservation biology. The emphasis is on applications and examples (as opposed to specific methods and techniques), and showing how goals were met using well-developed figures and images.