TERN environmental monitoring is now regularly using Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (often abbreviated to UAVs or drones).
The TERN drone remote sensing program is a standardised, nationwide ecological data collection program. It is a collaboration between the TERN teams at University of Adelaide and University of Tasmania.
TERN and partners will gather information at 1,000 ecological monitoring sites much faster than before, providing data that complements TERN’s current landscape studies, filling the gap between TERN’s detailed but infrequent field surveys and broad satellite image analysis.
Using TERN’s new standardised methods and collaborative platform to develop and test procedures and data standards, drones are reliable tools for ecosystem science, agriculture, and land management.
TERN is well-equipped with the research tools and partnerships to lead the use of drones in mapping and monitoring landscapes across Australia. This includes the use of high-spatial resolution RGB cameras, 10-band multispectral sensors, and 3D laser scanners, for mapping landforms and vegetation, tracking livestock, counting animal species, expanding observations for broader applications and monitoring hard-to-reach areas or rapid changes like those caused by climate extremes.
Advances in automated processing and AI classification now make it easier and faster to assess ecosystems, allowing researchers and land managers to quickly evaluate changes and conditions. Creation of unique centimetre-scale resolution data products provides new insights into ecosystem function and dynamics.
There is an increasing need for robust and accurate calibration and validation datasets with the launch of new satellite missions that will focus on observation of structure (biomass) and ecological processes (productivity).
TERN has an important and leading role to play in making high-quality drone data widely available to the national and international ecosystem science and earth observation communities.
