Remote Sensing for sustainable use of seasonally dry tropical forests - Learning to live with the forest
Lead Research Organisation:
Royal Botanic Gardens
Department Name: Biodiversity Informatics
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Publications
A, Antonelli
(2020)
State of the World's Plants and Fungi
Holland R
(2024)
Giant sequoia ( Sequoiadendron giganteum ) in the UK: carbon storage potential and growth rates
in Royal Society Open Science
| Title | Reforest card game |
| Description | Card game featuring this project and the caatinga ecosystems. Games allow participants to understand the ecosystem and its impact on it (negative and positive) . |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | Release at COP26 to VIP's and decision-makers. Games is being reviewed for wider release. |
| Description | In this project the aim was to utilise new remote sensing technologies and methodologies to support conservation and sustainable use to prevent the loss of dry forests, showcasing the application of this technology in dry forests of Brazil. Unfortunately, the work in Brazil was severely hampered by the Pandemic. We used Scotland's Atlantic forest in Taynish, as well as Benmores Redwood Avenue (to test against very large trees) as a testing ground for the technologies and methods. After two visits methods and workflows were honed, allowing the collection of multiple spatial data at different resolutions, wavelengths, and platforms. The data collected from Benmore was highly successful culminating in a joint paper with UCL with much media interest. Taynish data was successfully processed and presented at COP26. We are still working on this data and hope to have formal outputs in the next reporting year, both for Scotland and Brazil. |
| Exploitation Route | The project succeeded in using multiple novel remote sensing technologies in unison. Testing these methods in Scotland's Atlantic Forest and Benmore's Redwood Avenue refined workflows, enabling efficient collection of spatial data at multiple resolutions, scales, and sensors. The collaboration with UCL resulted in a joint paper and much media attention, enhancing public awareness. We presented at COP26, this would influence policy, outputs offer new guidance, and data collection methods and workflows. These outcomes could help catalyse new technology usage, help inform policymaking, foster international collaboration, and facilitate knowledge transfer, benefiting other conservation initiatives. |
| Sectors | Electronics Environment |
| Description | The findings from this project are gaining traction. Two major impacts have been forthcoming; COP26 and Redwoods in the UK, both of these have garnered interest from multiple groups of interested parties. COP26 presentations allow the use a wide audience of policymakers and decision-makers. Whilst the redwood media interest (over 200 piece to date), hitting the general public. The methods and workflows developed have allowed this to happen and give both visual results and useful results. For the UK we have used these technologies to quantify the growth and carbon capture potential for the giant sequoia within the UK. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Environment |
| Impact Types | Societal Policy & public services |
| Description | Capital, remote sensing |
| Amount | £40,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2021 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | Equipment- Hyper spectral camera and LiDAR for UAV |
| Amount | £131,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2020 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | Equipment: Terrestrial LiDAR |
| Amount | £120,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 03/2021 |
| Description | LiDAR and plant survey. Quantifying biomass and NbS |
| Amount | £109,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2022 |
| End | 03/2023 |
| Description | Measuring the wood and the trees. What are Kew's natural assets worth? |
| Amount | £7,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2020 |
| End | 09/2020 |
| Description | Nature Returns: Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change at the Landscape Scale |
| Amount | £795,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Department For Environment, Food And Rural Affairs (DEFRA) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2024 |
| End | 04/2025 |
| Description | Nature Returns: Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change at the Landscape Scale - Extension funding |
| Amount | £270,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | HM Treasury |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2024 |
| End | 03/2025 |
| Description | Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change at the Landscape Scale |
| Amount | £12,500,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Natural England |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2021 |
| End | 03/2024 |
| Description | OCBILs from space: using remote sensing to characterise heterogeneity in campo rupestre |
| Amount | £7,500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2023 |
| End | 03/2024 |
| Title | Data for: UK redwoods terrestrial laser scanner point clouds |
| Description | Giant redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum) are some of the UK's largest trees, despite only being introduced in the mid-19th century. Given recent interest in planting redwoods in the UK, partly due to their carbon sequestration potential and also their undoubted public appeal, an understanding of their viability is important. However, little or no research has been conducted to quantitatively estimate their carbon uptake in UK conditions. We used 3D terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) to make detailed structure measurements of individual S. giganteum trees at three sites, to estimate aboveground biomass (AGB) and annual biomass accumulation rates. We show that UK-grown S. giganteum can sequester carbon at a rate of 80 - 100 kg C year-1, varying with climate, management and age. This accumulation rate is 2.5 and 20 times faster than commonly-grown UK plantation tree species. We develop new UK-specific allometric models for S. giganteumwhich fit observed AGB with r2 > 0.93 and bias < 2% and can be used to estimate S. giganteum AGB more generally. S. giganteum appears to represent a small but potentially important addition to the UK's carbon sequestration efforts and this work provides a baseline for estimating their longer term AGB and carbon sequestration capacity. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | http://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.ttdz08m3n |
| Title | Three dimension output from first fact finding trip to demonstrate workflow and results |
| Description | Three dimension output from first fact finding trip to demonstrate workflow and results |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | These have only just been released and we will build on this resource as the project and methods are developed |
| URL | https://www.pointbox.xyz/users/5e3d7837ffe65b80c9d5a204 |
| Description | Functional-structural plant model in the caatinga of Brazil |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Joint PhD Student with Imperial to Functional-structural plant model in the caatinga of Brazil. The student will be using data gathered from this project for modelling of caatinga vegetation |
| Collaborator Contribution | Expertise in systems and vegetation |
| Impact | Increased exposure to growth models and additional grants for equipment. |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Applications of Drones in Environmental Regulation and Monitoring. Drones in Pursuit of Plants Conservation and Science: Real World Experiences. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Discussion and presentation to DEFRA and other government organisations, on the use of UAV for research etc. - 29th January 2019, North Wales, UK. Applications of Drones in Environmental Regulation and Monitoring. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.ukeof.org.uk/news/drone-conf-2019 |
| Description | British Ecological Society: Unifying tropical ecology: strengthening collaborative science. British Ecological Society: Unifying tropical ecology: strengthening collaborative science. What's the Point? Point clouds for Restoration monitoring: in A view from the top - using drones in tropical ecology and conservation. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | British Ecological Society: Unifying tropical ecology: strengthening collaborative science. What's the Point? Point clouds for Restoration monitoring: in A view from the top - using drones in tropical ecology and conservation. Talk and discussion of new ideas and outcomes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/events/ute2019/ |
| Description | COP26 card game. Featuring this project and ecosystems |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Reforest card game developed featuring this project and the cattinga ecosystems. The game give to COP26 participants and at a dinner of VIP's and donors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Demostration activity and sandpit at Wakehurst place |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Demonstration and sandpit activity at Wakehurst place for UK local stakeholders and site managers. To demonstration and test equipment and to engage. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Kew drone pilots map deforestation and fire damage around the world |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Press article which mentions this project and others. plus associated paper |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/environment/2021/02/21/kew-drone-pilots-map-deforestation-fire-damage-ar... |
| Description | London DEFRA computing group, |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Talk was given to DEFRA policymakers, on the computing power needed for the next generation of data to be captured. Details of these projected used to show data capture and potiental. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | London DEFRA computing group, Kew Spatial Analysis for Plant Conservation and Science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Demostration to DEFRA and policy makers of high level computing from spatial data. 26th July 2019, London DEFRA computing group, Kew Spatial Analysis for Plant Conservation and Science |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Media interest in the redwoods of UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Press release and pre-recorded video with BBC on a study looking at the Redwoods in the UK. This is a spin-off from this grant and builds on the technology and science from this grant, Link to paper published at the same time. UCL and Kew Science shows that imported giant sequoia trees (redwoods) are well adapted to the UK, growing at rates close to their native ranges and capturing large amounts of carbon during their long lives. And, with an estimated half a million redwoods in the UK, they significantly outnumber the fewer than 80,000 remaining giant sequoias in their native California, where they are endangered. The publication of the study generated over 200 pieces of media coverage, so far including seven print articles and two high-profile TV appearances. The key coverage was a BBC News report with Science Editor Rebecca Morelle, filmed at Wakehurst with Phil Wilkes and Havering County Park with UCL's Mat Disney. Also featured on BBC World Service and regional radio hubs including BBC Sussex & Surrey, BBC Lancashire, BBC Shropshire, and others. We also had Justin Moat on Sky News's UK Tonight and the French press agency AFP. Simon Toomer then appeared on the World Today with Maryam Moshiri on BBC News. while a crew from Sky's The Climate Show with Tom Heap cameit to film a segment in Kew's Redwood Grove for the Saturday programme. Print coverage included: The Times, Daily Express, The Herald, Daily Record, The Scotsman, and others. Online included: BBC News, Reuters, The Telegraph, Sky news, Daily Express, ITV News, New Scientist, Metro, Evening Standard, Country Living Magazine, Time Out London, Daily Mail, RTL Today - and some international outlets such as Interia Zielona and Interia Wydarzenia in Poland, Green Report in Italy and France 24 in France. The story was also picked up by PA, with the copy syndicated across regional UK news sites. And it may have even inspired this political cartoon by Christian Adams in Tuesday's Evening Standard: https://www.instagram.com/p/C4c8uGrINle/ |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/mar/giant-sequoias-are-rapidly-growing-feature-uk-landscape |
| Description | Monitoring and new technologies,?in Reforestation for Biodiversity, Carbon Capture and Livelihoods: |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Chaired session at Reforestation for Biodiversity, Carbon Capture and Livelihoods conference |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N6BYJ6GBHw |
| Description | Presentation of project at COP26 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | A session presentation at COP26 UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub Pavillon. This project and other featured and acknowledge etc. Innovations in measuring biodiversity as Nature's carbon storage to inform future initiatives Prof. Thomas Meagher, University of St. Andrews Dr. Justin Moat, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Dr. Hugh Mortimer, Science and Technology Facilities Council Rachel Purdon, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Dr Laura Meagher, Technology Development Group |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=notXRiFi2MA |
| Description | STFC IAA, which reviewing the Integration of novel remote sensing technology into biodiversity policy and management. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Workshop to review this project and the Integration of novel remote sensing technology into biodiversity policy and management. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |