Space based tools to monitor the habitats of migratory waterbirds

• Natural fluctuations in the availability of suitable habitat coupled with anthropogenic activities (hunting, agriculture, tourism, urbanism) and anticipated modifications due to climate change confront migratory waterbirds with a formidable challenge. Among them, dabbling ducks, greatly rely on local exogenous resources to fulfil their energy requirements. Habitat suitability along their flyway is of primary importance as any change might induce dramatic effects on individual survival and breeding success. Although, the monitoring of such sensitive flooded areas that are wetlands stopover sites is usually complex, space based techniques, with an exhaustive and systematic covering of the territory and a periodical data acquisition, can explore cost-efficiently the ecological conditions for migratory species in these environments. Hence, multiseason reflectance data from radiometrically and geometrically corrected multispectral SPOT-5 scenes, combined with thorough field campaigns and land cover digitizing using data mining, can provide robust tools for habitat monitoring and help the conservation of wetlands for migrants.

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