Ricerc@Sapienza

Semi-natural grasslands, i.e., secondary grasslands whose maintenance depends on mowing and/or livestock grazing, deliver a range of ecosystem services, including the support to farming activities and to biodiversity, the regulation of soil carbon storage and hydrology. Therefore, their monitoring as well as the prompt implementation of active conservation measures is one of the most pressing conservation issues in Europe. Monitoring schemes are needed to quantify spatial changes in these multiple functions alongside ecosystem degradation. Current monitoring approaches are labour intensive, and often fail to capture spatial patterns.
Remote sensing from small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) carrying lightweight cameras can be transformed into surface elevation models and orthophotos using image-based structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry; this represents a new opportunity for monitoring the spatial structure of semi-natural grasslands.
In this project we would combine aerial photographs with field survey data to generate high spatial resolution datasets aiming at analyzing the structural and compositional changes occurring in semi-natural grassland habitats. We will take advantage of high-resolution mapping through UAVs, on-field vegetation sampling, collection of management information, and the analysis of the colonization patterns of species not typical of the habitat to define effective monitoring strategies in support of semi-natural grassland conservation. This approach supports frequent surveys, at user controlled revisit times, and delivers fine resolution data for spatial monitoring of key grassland functions and services.