Thermal Infrared UAV Applications for Spatially Explicit Wildlife Occupancy Modeling
Assessing the impact of community-based conservation programs on wildlife biodiversity remains a significant challenge. This pilot study was designed to develop and demonstrate a scalable, spatially explicit workflow using thermal infrared (TIR) imagery and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for non-in...
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2025-07-01
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| author | Eve Bohnett Babu Ram Lamichanne Surendra Chaudhary Kapil Pokhrel Giavanna Dorman Axel Flores Rebecca Lewison Fang Qiu Doug Stow Li An |
| author_facet | Eve Bohnett Babu Ram Lamichanne Surendra Chaudhary Kapil Pokhrel Giavanna Dorman Axel Flores Rebecca Lewison Fang Qiu Doug Stow Li An |
| author_sort | Eve Bohnett |
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| description | Assessing the impact of community-based conservation programs on wildlife biodiversity remains a significant challenge. This pilot study was designed to develop and demonstrate a scalable, spatially explicit workflow using thermal infrared (TIR) imagery and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for non-invasive biodiversity monitoring. Conducted in a 2-hectare grassland area in Chitwan, Nepal, the study applied TIR-based grid sampling and multi-species occupancy models with thin-plate splines to evaluate how species detection and richness might vary between (1) morning and evening UAV flights, and (2) the Chitwan National Park and Kumroj Community Forest. While the small sample area inherently limits ecological inference, the aim was to test and demonstrate data collection and modeling protocols that could be scaled to larger landscapes with sufficient replication, and not to produce generalizable ecological findings from a small dataset. The pilot study results revealed higher species detection during morning flights, which allowed us to refine our data collection. Additionally, models accounting for spatial autocorrelation using thin plate splines suggested that community-based conservation programs effectively balanced ecosystem service extraction with biodiversity conservation, maintaining richness levels comparable to the national park. Models without splines indicated significantly higher species richness within the national park. This study demonstrates the potential for spatially explicit methods for monitoring grassland mammals using TIR UAV as indicators of anthropogenic impacts and conservation effectiveness. Further data collection over larger spatial and temporal scales is essential to capture the occupancy more generally for species with larger home ranges, as well as any effects of rainfall, flooding, and seasonal variability on biodiversity in alluvial grasslands. |
| format | Article |
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| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
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| spelling | doaj-art-05fa5e9a4b1c4761b0a987b23f36d1dc2025-07-25T13:27:47ZengMDPI AGLand2073-445X2025-07-01147146110.3390/land14071461Thermal Infrared UAV Applications for Spatially Explicit Wildlife Occupancy ModelingEve Bohnett0Babu Ram Lamichanne1Surendra Chaudhary2Kapil Pokhrel3Giavanna Dorman4Axel Flores5Rebecca Lewison6Fang Qiu7Doug Stow8Li An9Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 89101, USANational Trust for Nature Conservation, Chitwan 44204, NepalNational Trust for Nature Conservation, Chitwan 44204, NepalNational Trust for Nature Conservation, Chitwan 44204, NepalDepartment of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USADepartment of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USADepartment of Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USADepartment of Geospatial Information Science, University of Texas, Dallas, TX 75080, USADepartment of Geography, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182, USAThe Complex Human-Environment Systems Lab, College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USAAssessing the impact of community-based conservation programs on wildlife biodiversity remains a significant challenge. This pilot study was designed to develop and demonstrate a scalable, spatially explicit workflow using thermal infrared (TIR) imagery and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for non-invasive biodiversity monitoring. Conducted in a 2-hectare grassland area in Chitwan, Nepal, the study applied TIR-based grid sampling and multi-species occupancy models with thin-plate splines to evaluate how species detection and richness might vary between (1) morning and evening UAV flights, and (2) the Chitwan National Park and Kumroj Community Forest. While the small sample area inherently limits ecological inference, the aim was to test and demonstrate data collection and modeling protocols that could be scaled to larger landscapes with sufficient replication, and not to produce generalizable ecological findings from a small dataset. The pilot study results revealed higher species detection during morning flights, which allowed us to refine our data collection. Additionally, models accounting for spatial autocorrelation using thin plate splines suggested that community-based conservation programs effectively balanced ecosystem service extraction with biodiversity conservation, maintaining richness levels comparable to the national park. Models without splines indicated significantly higher species richness within the national park. This study demonstrates the potential for spatially explicit methods for monitoring grassland mammals using TIR UAV as indicators of anthropogenic impacts and conservation effectiveness. Further data collection over larger spatial and temporal scales is essential to capture the occupancy more generally for species with larger home ranges, as well as any effects of rainfall, flooding, and seasonal variability on biodiversity in alluvial grasslands.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/7/1461thermal infrared UAVspatially explicit occupancythin-plate splinecommunity-based conservation |
| spellingShingle | Eve Bohnett Babu Ram Lamichanne Surendra Chaudhary Kapil Pokhrel Giavanna Dorman Axel Flores Rebecca Lewison Fang Qiu Doug Stow Li An Thermal Infrared UAV Applications for Spatially Explicit Wildlife Occupancy Modeling Land thermal infrared UAV spatially explicit occupancy thin-plate spline community-based conservation |
| title | Thermal Infrared UAV Applications for Spatially Explicit Wildlife Occupancy Modeling |
| title_full | Thermal Infrared UAV Applications for Spatially Explicit Wildlife Occupancy Modeling |
| title_fullStr | Thermal Infrared UAV Applications for Spatially Explicit Wildlife Occupancy Modeling |
| title_full_unstemmed | Thermal Infrared UAV Applications for Spatially Explicit Wildlife Occupancy Modeling |
| title_short | Thermal Infrared UAV Applications for Spatially Explicit Wildlife Occupancy Modeling |
| title_sort | thermal infrared uav applications for spatially explicit wildlife occupancy modeling |
| topic | thermal infrared UAV spatially explicit occupancy thin-plate spline community-based conservation |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/7/1461 |
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