Picture worth a thousand words: Updating repeat photography for 21st century ecologists

Hammond, William P.; Stone, Marie E. B.; Stone, Paul A.

doi:10.1002/ece3.7001

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(49 reference statements)

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“…Repeat photography is the practice of replicating pre‐existing photographs for documenting and quantifying changes over time (Depauw et al., 2022; Hammond et al., 2020). It allows us to document habitat restoration and ecosystem changes in an oblique view, better aligning with how people perceive the world and thus offering a great tool for communication purposes.…”

Section: Drone Applications In Line With the Goals Of The Parkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flying high for conservation: Opportunities and challenges of operating drones within the oldest National Park in the Alps

Rossi,

Wiesmann

2024

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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Drones have emerged as an essential tool in various conservation applications. Despite the great potential, drone use by protected area managers is still scarce or accompanied by scepticism. The ongoing debate revolves around whether drones are fancy gadgets or if they can effectively guide management strategies and align with the overarching goals of protected areas. Here, we present a practical overview of how novel drone applications contribute to the goals of the oldest national park in the Alps, along with the associated challenges. To do so, we review our seven‐year experience as park employees flying drones within the park and its surroundings. First, we provide background information receiving limited attention in the existing literature such as our motivation behind a drone purchase, costs and an overview of our flight operations. Second, we show three examples that demonstrate the potential of drones as a valuable tool in addressing the goals of the park: managing the area, researching natural processes and facilitating communication. Third, we reflect on operational challenges and provide valuable lessons for addressing the specific challenges of flying drones in an alpine and protected environment. Practical implication: Our experience supports the benefits of drones for protected area management, but it also highlights the need for certain precautions, increased focus on operational challenges and further research on wildlife‐drone interactions.

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Section: Drone Applications In Line With the Goals Of The Parkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flying high for conservation: Opportunities and challenges of operating drones within the oldest National Park in the Alps

Rossi,

Wiesmann

2024

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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“…The use of photographs in the studies of landscape change allows the rapid documentation of spatial change, but in addition to the requirements for the angle and position of the photographs, it is difficult to analyse the spatial depth and other three-dimensional visual features. For example, Hammond et al found that the similarity of the photographs before and after two years was around 90% by calculating the similarity of the pictures after repeating the photographs at the same location in 2015, 2016, and 2017 [51]. Li showed by analysing the Google Street View images of New York City that the mean Green View Index of the study area increased from 19.33 to 19.77 from 2008-2013 to 2014-2018 [52].…”

Section: Confirming the Long-term Changes In Visual Attributes Of Urb...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the Long-Term Changes in Visual Attributes of Urban Green Spaces Using Point Clouds

Zhang,

Fang,

Zhang

et al. 2024

Land

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The visual attributes of urban green spaces influence people’s perceptions, preferences, and behavioural activities. While many studies have established correlations between landscape perception and visual attributes, they often focus on specific timeframes and overlook dynamic changes in the spatial form of urban green spaces. This study aims to explore the long-term changes in the visual attributes of urban green spaces. We propose a method to quantitatively analyse changes in visual attributes using point clouds to simulate visual interfaces. Using an unmanned aerial vehicle, we conducted a five-axis tilt photography survey of Qinglvyuan Park in Nanjing, China, in August 2018 and September 2023. Point cloud models were generated for the two periods, and five visual attribute indicators, openness (OP), depth variance (DV), green view ratio (GVR), sky view ratio (SVR), and skyline complexity (SC), were analysed for long-term changes. The results indicate that OP, DV, and SVR decreased after five years, while GVR increased. The maximum increase in GVR was 26.6%, and the maximum decrease in OP was 12.8%. There is a positive correlation between GVR and its change (d_GVR). Conversely, there are negative correlations between SC and its change (d_SC), as well as between SVR and d_GVR. Tree growth emerged as a primary factor influencing changes in the visual attributes of urban green spaces. This study highlights the importance of adopting a long-term and dynamic perspective in visual landscape studies, as well as in landscape design and maintenance practices. Future research on predicting long-term changes in the visual attributes of urban green spaces should focus on understanding the relationships between tree properties and environmental conditions.

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“…It is a common method to analyse long‐term landscape, land‐use and vegetation changes from an ecological perspective (Nusser, 2000; Pickard, 2002; Santana‐Cordero & Szabo, 2019; Vellend et al, 2013). Repeat photos allow researchers to study the effect of anthropogenic and natural disturbances on a finer spatial resolution than is possible with satellite imagery (Hammond et al, 2020), and at time‐scales beyond those accessible by long‐term ecological monitoring (Hoffman et al, 2020). They allow to obtain insights in historical ecological conditions with limited resources.…”

Section: Three Promising Avenues For the Use Of Photos In Ecological ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Repeat photography is also used on smaller time-scales compared to repeat historical photographs, when new timeseries are started by researchers who frequently (e.g. once a year) revisit the study site(s) Hammond et al, 2020). For instance, Hietz et al (2002) used repeated photographs of branches, taken once a year in summer, to monitor the growth and survival of epiphytes over a 5-year period.…”

Section: Repeat Photographymentioning

confidence: 99%

The use of photos to investigate ecological change

et al. 2022

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Global change is causing ecosystems to change at unprecedented rates and the urgency to quantify ecological change is high. We therefore need all possible sources of ecological data to address key knowledge gaps. Ground‐based photos are a form of remote sensing and an unconventional data source with a high potential to improve our understanding of ecological change. They can provide invaluable information on ecological conditions in the past and present at relevant spatiotemporal scales that is very difficult to obtain with other approaches. Here we review the use of ground‐based photos in a set of relevant ecological research topics, such as biodiversity and community ecology, phenology, global change ecology and landscape ecology. We highlight three main photo‐based methods in ecological research (repeat photography, time‐lapse photography and public archives), alongside which we discuss three case studies to demonstrate novel applications of these methods, to answer fundamental ecological questions. Synthesis. Photos can significantly support ecological research to improve our understanding of biotic responses in a rapidly changing world. Photos cover relatively large temporal and spatial scales, and can provide large amounts of information with limited time investment. To exploit their full potential, we need to invest not only in technological advances to compile, process and analyse images but also in proper data management.

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Picture worth a thousand words: Updating repeat photography for 21st century ecologists

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 8 publications

References 32 publications

Flying high for conservation: Opportunities and challenges of operating drones within the oldest National Park in the Alps

Flying high for conservation: Opportunities and challenges of operating drones within the oldest National Park in the Alps

Exploring the Long-Term Changes in Visual Attributes of Urban Green Spaces Using Point Clouds

The use of photos to investigate ecological change

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