Seminar 20: Leveraging Earth Observation Data to Enhance Management of Natural Areas

Speaker: Jean-Marc Hero

Abstract
Earth observation data capture is a rapidly expanding industry that provides comprehensive information on vegetation condition at multiple scales. Global, national and state level applications and analyses are often at a coarse scale that is unsuitable to end-users directly responsible for land management. Here I will highlight our efforts to use such data to prioritise natural areas within the City of Gold Coast, using a variety of remote-sensing and drone platforms. This involved a large collaborative team to assess restoration success, mapping and monitoring invasive plants, bio-condition assessment and disaster management.

Brief Bio
Professor Jean-Marc Hero is a distinguished scientist with extensive experience in research, education and project management across ecological and environmental sciences, particularly in applied conservation biology. A former academic, he is now affiliated with the University of the Sunshine Coast and the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. He has over 170 publications and has received prestigious scholarly awards. He is presently leading the City of Gold Coast’s Restoration Dynamics Project to develop remote-sensing analytics for a variety of real-world conservation applications.