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Cost-effective monitoring of the recreational use of coastal areas using drones and digital imagery
Thesis   Open access

Cost-effective monitoring of the recreational use of coastal areas using drones and digital imagery

Euan James Provost
Southern Cross University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Southern Cross University
2021
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25918/thesis.156
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Abstract

Coast Habitats User experience Aerial remote sampling Drones Aerial sampling Drone technologies Capabilities Management
Effective management of coastal habitats improves the user experience, while minimising degenerative impacts to the environment. Best practice coastal management is based on an extensive suite of routinely collected data, which can be challenging to acquire over expansive coastlines. To address this, innovative aerial remote sampling techniques are increasingly being used to cost-effectively collect information for evidence-based coastal management. Remotely piloted aerial systems (hereafter called drones), bridge the gap between on-ground surveys and conventional aerial sampling techniques. Improvements to drone technology have reduced the cost and skill required to operate drones in coastal areas. These drone-based techniques must, however, be further developed and compared against traditional methods to understand their relative strengths and weaknesses. My thesis explores the capability of current drone technologies for data collection that informs coastal management. This was achieved by developing novel drone-based methods for data collection and comparing these to established techniques to determine costs and benefits, as well as improvements to sampling precision. Specifically, I used drone-based techniques to inform sandy beach management by quantifying and classifying recreational users (Chapters 2 & 3). An investigation of recreational beach users was successfully undertaken using drones to provide simultaneous comparisons among beaches and was also compared to a desktop approach using existing orthomosaic databases collected from crewed aircraft. Additionally, I assessed the value of drone-based monitoring to support fisheries management by detecting passive fishing gear (Chapter 4) and quantifying recreational fishers (Chapter 5). Drones were capable of detecting a large proportion of crab traps and floats, though their utility was limited by water visibility. While drones could quantify recreational fishers, their use was subject to visibility bias and did not provide a substantial improvement on more conventional vessel-based techniques. Knowledge of when, where and how to best use drones is important for developing additional drone-based monitoring methods. Overall, I found that drones can contribute to informative and cost-effective data collection within coastal areas, albeit with some limitations. This project highlights the potential for drones as a tool for cost-effective monitoring of coastal areas to improve evidence-based management.

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