A decision support system to monitor chimpanzee habitat health in Africa using Landsat satellite imagery, crowdsourcing and open standards

Lilian Pintea, the Jane Goodall Institute, lpintea@janegoodall.org (Presenter)
Sam Jantz, University of Maryland, sjantz@umd.edu
Janet Nackoney, University of Maryland, jnackone@umd.edu
Matthew Hansen, University of Maryland, mhansen@umd.edu

The Open Standards for the practice of conservation is a science-based, collaborative and adaptive management framework that strategically focuses conservation decisions on clearly defined objectives and prioritized threats and measures success in a manner that enables adaptation and learning over time. Recent developments in remote sensing and cloud computing enable the use of satellite observations to provide a synoptic view of habitats at fine spatial and temporal resolutions that are locally relevant and consistent across an entire species range. In this paper we present a practical Decision Support System to be used by the Jane Goodall Institute and partners to annually monitor and forecast chimpanzee habitat health in Africa. The system integrates Earth observations from 30-meter resolution Landsat data with a species-specific habitat model and a model forecasting future land use change, enhanced by crowd-sourced field data collected by local communities and rangers using the Open Data Kit app and Android mobile smartphones and tablets. Current habitat health status of the chimpanzee in Africa between 2000 and 2013 and future habitat health until 2030 will be presented and discussed. While coarser-scale and static chimpanzee habitat models have been previously developed, this project is the first to develop a dynamic monitoring system updated annually via Earth observations data that will systematically monitor threats and changes in habitat over time. Since the chimpanzee is an important keystone, flagship and umbrella species, an annual chimpanzee habitat health index would support conservation goals of other species within its large 2.5 million sq km range and could be an important indicator of overall ecosystem health of tropical forests in Africa.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Theme 1: Tracking habitat change through new integrative approaches and products   (Mon 1:30 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Pintea, Lilian: Monitoring and Forecasting Chimpanzee Habitat Health in Africa to Inform Conservation Actions, Strategies and Measure Success ...details

Poster Location ID: 45