Publication of ‘Aerial photogrammetry of seabirds from digital aerial video images using relative change in size to estimate flight height’ is a major advance for offshore wind industry.
Calculating the height at which birds fly over the sea is a challenging task but remains important to assessing collision risk in proposed offshore wind farm areas for consenting purposes.
For several years the HiDef team have been working on the tricky question of ‘How high do birds fly?’ This has culminated in the recent publication of ‘Aerial photogrammetry of seabirds from digital aerial video images using relative change in size to estimate flight height’ in Marine Biology. This key paper details the method and validation studies, including a comparison of results with LiDAR measurements for kittiwake. It follows basic principles of photogrammetry and provides a more cost-effective solution than LiDAR, while sampling greater volumes of airspace. It has already been used commercially and compares well with other published data such as gannet GPS tracking.
This technique can greatly improve our knowledge of the spatial distribution of flight height patterns in marine ecosystems, but also allows stakeholders to assess collision risk more easily within the sphere of offshore wind for the consenting process.
The paper can be found at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-022-04161-5
If you have any queries, please contact HiDef Head of Science, Kelly Macleod Kelly.macleod@hidefsurveying.co.uk
