It was an honour to host a delegation from the Republic of Korea’s Environment Institute and Ministry of Environment this week. We shared thoughts and ideas and provided an update on what can be done through digital video aerial surveying and how cutting edge modelling techniques help developers and decision makers in the wind farm planning process.
Another published paper from HiDef and collaborators. Animal abundance estimation is increasingly based on drone or aerial survey photography. Volumes of data are increasing and there is a move towards automation. The paper presents a density map estimation method for counting penguins from low resolution aerial photography. Read more via the link:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.9903
Photo: Gentoo penguins – Simon Pinder
HiDef’s Kelly Macleod was one in five women invited to talk career journeys and challenges faced being a “woman in science” – challenges still remain – gender bias in the “top jobs” and pay gaps. The event was aimed at postgraduates of University of St Andrews.
Caroline joins HiDef bringing with her a wealth of knowledge and experience, she has a background in Marine Science having studied at the Scottish Association for Marine Science. Caroline’s previous role was with NatureScot as a marine ecology advisor. Within this role, she led on underwater noise advice for offshore wind projects, tidal stream projects, harbour developments and aquaculture. She also sat on project steering groups for Scottish and UK research projects, having had over ten years of experience where she was an expert in underwater noise and other impacts on marine mammals.
HiDef are proud to announce the completion of surveys from March 2021 to February 2023 across the Ossian offshore wind farm array area, located approximately 80km southeast of the Aberdeenshire coast. Being developed by SSE Renewables Limited (SSER), Marubeni Corporation (Marubeni), and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) (the Project Partners), the site is part of the ScotWind leasing round.
The monthly aerial surveys included an 8km buffer area and took place using four planes along transects at 2.5km spacing. The project consisted of 330 hours of flight time across 4050 square kilometres.
Each aircraft is equipped with high-definition camera equipment that captures live footage which is then assessed by ornithology and marine mammal experts. So far, the team has analysed over 16 million images following the survey.
Data collected will be vital for understanding the distribution and habits of key birdlife and marine mammal species across the proposed floating wind farm’s array zone and surrounding area.
Managing Director Martin Scott said “Aerial surveys are a logistical challenge, but very rewarding. The team recorded a variety of seabirds, dolphins and a few minke whales, which are always a thrill to locate.”
More details about the project can be found at: https://www.sserenewables.com/offshore/ossian-formerly-scotwind/
The Workington Zebra Finches RFC have reached the final at the Papa Johns Women’s Junior Plate which is being hosted at Twickenham on 1st May 2023. The ladies have worked tremendously hard to reach the final and it is a dream come true for all.
HiDef are absolutely delighted to sponsor staff Nicole Benson and colleague Katie Davis. This is a massive achievement for a local Cumbrian women’s rugby team to reach Twickenham, we are all rooting for the team.
Nicole enthused “HiDef have kindly sponsored me, and their contribution will help with my expenses. HiDef are also supporting the Finches team physiotherapist and colleague Katie Davis. I would just like to thank HiDef for their sponsorship and support.
Come on Finches!
Zack is our North American Wildlife Projects Manager and the primary point of contact for North American projects. He brings with him over a decade of field experience working with all kinds of protected species, from tracking tagged wild and captive born manatees in the swampy waterways of Florida to monitoring the installation of subsea fiber optic data transmission cables for collisions or entanglements with marine mammals off the coast of California. He is an US Army Corps of Engineers and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) approved manatee observer and has assisted FWC with stranding events, rescues, and necropsies on more than 5 different marine mammal species over the course of 15 years. As a US Navy Veteran who worked as an Aviation Electronics Technician on aircraft carriers, he also has a strong technical background and understands the complexities of operating at sea.
HiDef Managing Director, Martin Scott, said “It’s brilliant to have ‘boots on the ground’ in North America. With an expanding portfolio Zack will help share our industry leading knowledge and allow us to increase our offerings in the region”
HiDef are excited to announce the promotion of Simon Pinder as ID Team Leader. Highly regarded for this ornithology background, his contributions have led to him being a valuable addition to our team and we wish him luck in his new role!
HiDef are excited to announce we are set up and operational in Australia – a perfect way to wrap up Australia Day!
HiDef are excited to announce the arrival of Glen Tyler as Principal Consultant. Resident on Shetland Glen is well known in both the renewables industry and birding circles and has become established name in relation to seabirds in particular in recent years.
Moving from NatureScot to the consultancy world is new for Glen but we are sure he will slot in well with the expanding team and be a great asset going forward.
Welcome to the team Glen!
HiDef are very excited to announce our attendance at the Scottish Renewables Offshore Wild Conference 2023 event in Glasgow next week!
Come say hi and learn what services we can offer.
We look forward to seeing you there!
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
Another successful event held at the British Ecological Society conference at the Edinburgh international conference centre this week.
Thanks to everyone who came by and said hello, we loved chatting with you all.
Great event and turnout, until next time!
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Press release September 2022 |
Nature conservation: Biotope joins forces with Germany’s BioConsult SH and the UK’s HiDef Aerial Surveying to create a unique group in Europe
Biotope, European leader in environmental engineering and nature conservation services, has announced a merger with BioConsult SH, Germany’s leading ecological consultancy and HiDef Aerial Surveying, the UK’s leading provider of high-resolution digital aerial wildlife surveys. On September 9th, Biotope has acquired 27% stakes in BioConsult SH and HiDef. The three entities form a group with almost 800 employees and a combined turnover of 80 million euros, a first in Europe in the sector. The three companies will now greatly enhance their innovation efforts in the fields of ecological research and consulting to offer new services, matching the growing demand of science-based decision-making in environmental planning.
Nature conservation issues without borders
The three organisations share a common vision: to obtain the most reliable data on a large scale in order to establish the most robust environmental impact studies possible, so as to define and implement efficient nature conservation projects globally. This pooling of skills and technologies is a response to major environmental challenges in biodiversity that know no borders.
Long-term partners
After more than 7 years of fruitful collaboration, Biotope, BioConsult SH and HiDef Aerial Surveying are pooling their skills and technologies, in particular for the study of marine mammals and seabirds. The partnership is initially aimed at the evaluation of environmental issues and monitoring of the impacts of offshore wind farms.
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“We are delighted to be building on a long-standing partnership with companies that share common values of rigour, innovation and passion. We work on complex issues for projects that cover a range on biological topics and we have measured in recent years how valuable it is to be able to rely on teams based in different geographic areas. This is particularly the case in the many offshore wind farm projects, where few seabirds, for example, restrict their movements within national borders. It is also a way of responding to the concerns of our clients – companies, local authorities, government departments, NGOs – whose projects require technical, legal and economic capacities adapted to their requirements. The objective is to remain independent so that ecology remains independent of any financial, industrial or energy issue. Our ambition is to continue the development of the different entities, by increasing the synergies on the geographical, technical, legal but also human levels”, says Frédéric Melki, President of Biotope. |
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Georg Nehls, Managing Director of BioConsult SH, says: “We are very pleased to be joining forces with Biotope to promote biodiversity. Such a group of companies specialising in ecology does not currently exist in Europe. This alliance will enable us to considerably increase our capacity to collect reliable, large-scale data, to analyse it and thus gain a better understanding of the phenomena of species movements, avoidance and disturbance and, ultimately, the adaptation (or otherwise) of their populations to current and/or future marine infrastructures. Together we will greatly expand our efforts to develop and implement new technologies, especially in the field of Artificial Intelligence for ecological data acquisition.”
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Many synergies
Already present in all four corners of the world through its 30 locations in France and internationally, Biotope is strengthening its positions in Europe through this merger with BioConsult SH, an ecological research and consulting company based in Husum, Germany. Since 2016, BioConsult SH has been joined by the teams of HiDef Aerial Surveying, a United Kingdom based company, to benefit from their expertise in the field of aerial surveys of marine mammals and birds, as well as marine ecological research. This will facilitate Biotope’s geographical development in English-speaking countries (notably the United States and Australia), and BioConsult and HiDef Aerial Surveying will be able to benefit from projects in Biotope’s international subsidiaries.
Supporting the development of marine renewable energy
HiDef Aerial Surveying has developed cutting-edge technologies that consist of conducting aerial surveys over very large areas, in the open sea, and collecting high quality images that enable precise and well-documented inventories of marine megafauna. Since its acquisition by BioConsult SH, HiDef Aerial Surveying has experienced strong growth in Northwest Europe. The main activity is to study the presence and activities of birds and marine mammals at sea through digital aerial monitoring. This type of information is then used to draw up initial states of the environment, draft impact assessments and then characterise the reactions to the presence of developments at sea. These data are also used to better understand the populations of species frequenting marine protected areas, including seabirds such as the gannet and auks, and marine mammals such as the harbour porpoise.
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Marine renewable energy: key figures – 6,500 jobs in the French industry – Target of 40 GW installed in 2050 for offshore wind power in France – 2.6 billion invested in 2021 for offshore wind in France – 21.1 GW of offshore wind capacity commissioned in 2021 worldwide (i.e. three times more than the previous year, bringing the cumulative capacity of offshore wind turbines worldwide to 57 GW by the end of 2021) |
Already positioned in the marine renewable energy sector for several years, with the creation of a dedicated department in 2020, Biotope is continuing its development in the sector. Florian Lecorps, director of this department, has joined the HiDef Aerial Surveying board in 2022 to optimise synergies between the structures. This grouping of the three companies will also make it easier to position on certain national or European calls for tender, reserved for consortiums made up of several companies from multiple countries, requiring a certain investment capacity.
About Biotope
Founded in 1993 by nature lovers committed to the preservation of biodiversity, the company has established itself for 30 years as the European leader in environmental engineering. With 350 employees (botanists, wildlife experts and environmentalists) and 16 offices in mainland France, four in overseas France, three French subsidiaries and seven international subsidiaries, the Biotope consultancy assists public and private players in the environmental approach to development projects, from French Guiana to China and the Mediterranean. The company invests 7% of its turnover in R&D and its dedicated department designs and develops original solutions to understand and ultimately better protect nature in a wide variety of fields (acoustics, electronics, biostatistics, genetics, ecology).
Biotope is also a communications agency and a publishing house – Biotope Éditions – a leading publisher of nature books (identification guides, distribution atlases, beautiful books, nature walking guides, etc.). The leitmotiv of all its activities is to share knowledge of nature with as many people as possible in order to better protect it. www.biotope.fr
Biotope Press Contact
Dakota Communication
01 55 32 10 40 – biotope@dakota.fr
The grueling trek saw our staff traversing 13 and 26 mile routes around the tranquil Ullswater lake with a variety of weather conditions to compete against.
Raising over £5,000 for the Alzheimer’s Society in the process!
A big thank you to those who took part, those who volunteered and those who donated.
After five years at the helm as Managing Director, Andy Webb steps down and hands the baton over to Martin Scott. Andy became MD at HiDef in 2017 and has worked through a period of substantial growth at the company bringing science to the fore.
From being a keen birder, leading to working at Seabirds at Sea, Andy has become a well-known name in both ornithological and renewable energy circles. Ornithology became a long career at JNCC managing advice on seabirds and cetaceans, with particular emphasis on development of a network of marine Special Protection Areas. He has worked on development of statistical analysis techniques for assessing population size and identifying boundaries for SPAs; management of data and its dissemination to stakeholders. Events to be particularly proud of include the design of over 60 marine SPAs, including successful classification of 42 of these and the creation of the ESAS surveyor training programme. Latterly he developed advice on options for monitoring seabirds and cetaceans in UK waters to meet statutory and international obligations.
Moving to HiDef Andy gained the responsibility of managing the resources of the company as it began to grow. Through this period turnover has seen significant expansion and new partnerships formed not least expanding the relationship with sister company BioConsult in Germany. Alongside his management works Andy has always retained a strong interest in the scientific quality at HiDef and has worked on multiple consultancy and research projects. These include research into seabird flight height, use of digital aerial surveys as a means of marine wildlife surveying and authoring multiple reports and papers.
Andy won’t be disappearing altogether, and he will still be involved in HiDef going forward as a part time advisor. I’m sure you will all join us in wishing him all the best with his future plans and to thank him for all his guidance, advice, input and commitment during his time at HiDef.
HiDef continue to grow and last week Andy Webb retired as Managing Director. Martin Scott, who has been with the company since 2016, steps into the role.
“I’m happy and proud to share that I have started as Managing Director at HiDef Aerial Surveying. It is exciting times in the industry and it’s been great to be at the fore as Commercial Director. Now is the time to kick on again and lead the company to the next level. We have a strong hard working team, with enviable expertise, and are well positioned to continue to grow both in the aerial survey and consultancy markets”
The land sits close to the Observatory building, adjacent to the Humber Estuary. The top field has existing ridge and furrow in it, and the plan is to use these to create alternate lines of weedy strips/bird cover crops and scrub. The scrub will hopefully be a one off planting, but the weedy strips will require annual maintenance.. It is hoped that this area will prove beneficial to breeding Turtle Doves, Grey Partridge, Sylvia Warblers, Finches and Buntings. It should also be very attractive to autumn flocks of Finches and Buntings, as well as other migrants. The wildflower rich meadow surrounding the scrub and strips will be a haven for invertebrates, plus breeding Skylark and other farmland species.
A second field will have a freshwater scrape and shallow channels supplying it with water. These will be used by a huge variety of invertebrates, and seasonal change in water levels will encourage waders such as Redshank and Lapwing. Passage waders should also use the field in spring and autumn. Longer term it is the intention to erect a viewing screen or hide overlooking this area.
HiDef Commercial Director Marin Scott said,
“We are keen to promote conservation and wildlife through our work and are fortunate to be in the position where we can provide financial support for this exciting long term legacy project. Many of HiDef’s staff work or visit the Spurn area so it seemed a fitting project to back”
Spurn Bird Observatory Trust’s Operations Manager, Tim Jones said,
“We’re delighted that HiDef have chosen to support the Observatory in securing land in Kilnsea, which we plan to vastly improve for the local wildlife. This is a really exciting project that we are very much looking forward to getting stuck into this coming winter and hopefully seeing results in the coming years.”
Photo credits: Tree Sparrow – Ian Smith; Turtle Dove – Colin Bushell; Thumbnail: Reed Bunting – Bob Thompson
In recent summers HiDef have worked on a range of projects counting urban nesting gulls.
Traditionally many gulls have nested in cliff and coast environs but changes in behaviour (both by gulls and humans) have seen increasing numbers nesting in towns and cities. Establishing where and how large these populations are is complex and the best way to monitor large areas is using digital video aerial surveys. In recent years, HiDef have flown five large scale urban areas under contract to UK agencies.
The flights are complex requiring additional authorisations to survey and create a complex mosaic for staff to locate birds in the video. Some nest on large open roof spaces, such as industrial units, while others tuck themselves into corners by chimneys making them trickier to find. Populations in some areas are large and are predominantly formed from herring and lesser-black backed gulls. HiDef data are passed onto JNCC, BTO, and Natural Resources Wales for calibration work against ground surveys and to create population models as part of a new census of nesting seabirds in Britain and Ireland.
Perhaps gull populations haven’t declined as much as is previously thought, and it is a simple ecological redistribution? We wait to see the outcome.
For more insight into urban gulls read:
Urban nesting Herring Gull Larus argentatus and Lesser Black-backed Gulls Larus fuscus population estimates: devising species-specific correction models for ground-based survey data
http://publications.naturalengland.org.uk/publication/4790658520055808
BTO: Urban gulls survey. Highlights from the 2018 Survey in Birmingham
https://www.bto.org/sites/default/files/bto-urban-gull-survey-2018-summary-for-volunteers.pdf
JNCC: Seabird Census
Modern space technology and artificial intelligence have combined to enhance the conservation of marine animals: the new service, “SPACEWHALE”, developed by a team of creative scientists in Germany and the UK, detects whales from space. Supported by funding from the European Space Agency (ESA) Space Solutions program (https://spacesolutions.esa.int/), this fundamental research enables whales and other large marine megafauna to be surveyed at an unprecedented scale. Earth Observation from satellites is developing fast and within a few years, space technology companies aim to provide daily high-resolution images of the whole globe. SPACEWHALE makes use of this to boost marine research and conservation.
In contrast to previous whale monitoring by ship or aircraft, satellite images cover the global ocean surface. SPACEWHALE does not only detect whales but also other large marine animals. Many questions that previously required individual biological studies can now be answered with just a few clicks. Which areas are especially used by marine mammals? When do whales pass through a certain region during their migration? With the answers to these and other questions, solutions can be found that combine species protection on the one hand and human use of the seas on the other. For example, periods can be determined in which oil and gas or offshore wind farm activities cause the least disturbance to wildlife.
“Earth Observation by satellites is currently developing rapidly. It will only take a few more years for space companies to provide high-resolution images of the entire globe on a daily basis,” says project manager Caroline Höschle from BioConsult SH. “That makes SPACEWHALE a forward-looking tool, but it already performs fantastically well with the imagery we have today. Over 70 % of the Earth’s surface is covered by water and thus large areas are still unexplored. The intelligent use of satellite imagery now brings us a lot of previously inaccessible data. SPACEWHALE is part of this revolution,” Höschle continues. “SPACEWHALE is a fast and efficient means of surveying whales – at a comparable cost to traditional methods for only a small area of the oceans.
SPACEWHALE uses satellite imagery with a resolution of 31 cm per pixel across the ground, meaning that a 23 m fin whale has a length of around 77 pixels when it fully surfaces. “This is currently the highest commercially available resolution and though the images appear rather coarse, the resolution is just perfect to detect large whales,” says data scientist Dr. Grant Humphries from HiDef Aerial Surveying Ltd.
Automatic image recognition is now widely used for many applications in our daily life but to be successful, it needs to be based on a large set of training images. So far, there are hardly any satellite images of large whales that could be used as training images. The staff of BioConsult SH and HiDef Aerial Surveying Ltd. found a solution to this problem: they used digital aerial images of the smallest baleen whales, namely the 7 to 10-metre-long minke whales, which came from monthly whale monitoring flights of offshore wind farms. The researchers were able to show that the algorithm trained in this way could subsequently recognise 23-metre-long fin whales and other whale species on satellite images.
Initial trials of SPACEWHALE proved successful: in the Mediterranean Sea, the algorithm detected almost twice as many fin whales as a previous manual investigation. In the Bay of Biscay, the algorithm detected fin whales and three other whale species. SPACEWHALE successfully counted humpback whales off the Hawaiian and Southern Right Whales off the Argentinian coasts.
“SPACEWHALE makes a significant contribution to marine conservation; artificial intelligence combined with satellite images offers completely new opportunities,” says Höschle. The application of SPACEWHALE can help identify critical habitats of whales and inform marine spatial planning and impact assessments of offshore developments. Accelerating climate change is also expected to cause profound changes, especially in Arctic waters, with associated declining ice cover and expanding human activities in whale habitat. Historical ranges of whales are changing. “With SPACEWHALE, we want to contribute to the targeted implementation of protection measures for great whales, even in the most remote areas,” says Höschle. “ESA Space Solutions are pleased to support the development of the SPACEWALE service; it demonstrates that the possible applications of satellite data are endless and only becoming more so with new satellite capabilities, such as higher resolution imagery and improved coverage, being made available at an ever increasing rate. This project testifies ESA engagement in protecting biodiversity and natural eco-systems, in support to the Green Deal objectives.” – Rita Rinaldo, Head of the Partner-led and Thematic Initiatives Section, ESA Space Solutions.
Further information can be found on the service website https://www.spacewhales.de/
Enquiries:
Dr Grant Humphries. Email: grant.humphries@hidefsurveying.co.uk
Martin Scott, Email: martin.scott@hidefsurveying.co.uk
HiDef Aerial Surveying Ltd this week committed to becoming carbon neutral in all of its operations, including the aerial survey part of its business. HiDef provides a range of services to its clients, but primarily it provides digital video aerial wildlife surveys offshore, mainly for offshore wind farms. HiDef commissioned Carbon Footprint Ltd to audit its annual carbon emissions for 2020 and signed up to tree-planting schemes in England, Scotland and in the Amazonian rainforest to neutralise these.
HiDef Principal Consultant, Catriona Gall, who organised the audit said “We calculated all of our travel, heating and electricity costs for last year, however, most of our emissions came from our aerial survey programme. But for our use of low-emissions aircraft, we would have been responsible for even more carbon compounds going into the earth’s atmosphere.”
Andy Webb, Managing Director of HiDef added today “Our survey work helps offshore wind developers and governments to meet their climate change targets by reducing carbon emissions from electricity generation. As a socially responsible company, it is important to us that we also reduce the amount of carbon we are responsible for releasing into the atmosphere and that we offset what we release by a variety of methods that capture carbon from the atmosphere such as tree planting. We have committed to continuing to neutralise all our carbon emissions for the future and will be examining other options for carbon capture which will also benefit the earth’s people and wildlife.”
Well done to our Operations Director, Elaine Southward for being nominated for four categories – Business Woman, Creative Industry, Family Business and Professional Services for the 10th Anniversary Enterprise Vision Awards.
Elaine said “I am both delighted and shocked by this nomination, to be able to lead a company such as HiDef is a privilege, working with inspiring people of all levels is an honour and one that I feel lucky to be part of.”
Andy Web, Managing Director stated “I’m thrilled to bits to see Elaine being recognised for her abilities. I’ve relied heavily on Elaine’s business acumen to help drive us forward and get the company into the shape it needs to be in to continue our growth. I really hope she comes away from the event with at least one award – she thoroughly deserves it.”
HiDef are excited to announce that Dr Kelly Macleod has started work this week as our Head of Science. Kelly joins with an excellent pedigree in marine mammals having developed an international reputation in her field. Joining from a position of Senior Advisor at JNCC, Kelly’s career has centred around applied science, developing and using robust science to contribute to conservation and management of the marine environment.
Kelly said “ This is an exciting new role! I’ m delighted to be part of HiDef’s dynamic team and driving their science as part of the company’s ongoing success”.
The appointment allows HiDef to develop further their marine mammal expertise for clients and to work in closer partnership on the topic with sister company BioConsult SH.”
HiDef have taken on four Senior ornithologists to continue to develop the business. Paul French, Richard Schofield, Simon Pinder and Torcuil Grant have been working for HiDef on a freelance basis for a number of years, but new permanent contracts provide commitment and stability at a very busy time for the offshore industry. All have extensive field survey experience, both on and offshore and have recently been mentoring other staff online through homeworking. With thousands of hours experience, and over a million bird and marine mammal images identified between them securing the continuity and knowledge will allow HiDef to build on its success.
“Sound ornithological knowledge is core to our work. In a time of change it is good to build on a platform of experienced staffing and highlight the companies commitments to staff and clients alike” said Martin Scott, HiDef Commercial Director.
HiDef have pioneered digital video aerial surveying for marine wildlife. As domain experts in offshore ornithology we have developed a global reputation in data delivery and support services relating to conservation, offshore development and status. We hold an internationally significant database of marine megafauna and are developing into new strands of work such as identifying whales through satellite imagery and seabird behaviour monitoring. We are expanding rapidly across all of our services, combining technical and scientific excellence, and it is crucial to the company that we continue to lead in the innovation of new products based upon credible science.
HiDef are continuing to actively recruit for various roles. Do you want to work for an innovative, forward looking, people centric organisation? Then get in touch!
Click here to visit our careers page and see our current vacancies.
HiDef achieved accreditation to become a Living Wage Employer, the real Living Wage is the only rate calculated according to the costs of living. It provides a voluntary benchmark for employers that wish to ensure their staff earn a wage they can live on, not just the government minimum. Since 2011 the Living Wage movement has delivered a pay rise to over 250,000 people and put over £1.3 billion extra into the pockets of low paid workers.
Laura Gardiner, Director, Living Wage Foundation said: “We’re delighted that HiDef has joined the movement of 7,000 responsible employers across the UK who voluntarily commit to go further than the government minimum to make sure all their staff earn enough to live on. They join thousands of small businesses, as well as household names such as Burberry, Barclays, Chelsea and Everton Football Clubs and many more. These businesses recognise that paying the real Living Wage is the mark of a responsible employer and they, like HiDef, believe that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay”.
HiDef’s Operations Director Elaine Southward said “this is a fantastic achievement for HiDef which demonstrated our commitment to our staff and their value to the company, as a small business we strive to invest in our people and by becoming accredited to the Real Living Wage foundation is another way of demonstrating this’.
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is the 11th day of February, by resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. The day recognises the critical role women and girls play in science and technology, so HiDef is celebrating its wonderful team of women.
HiDef is proud to have a balanced team and is delighted to have a strong female contingent in the ranks.
The Potential of Satellite Imagery for Surveying Whales
A newly published paper sets out the stall of a collaboration of researchers, including HiDef, sister company BioConsult SH and British Antarctic Survey. The emergence of very high-resolution (VHR) satellite imagery (less than 1 m spatial resolution) is creating new opportunities within conservation. The advancement of sub-meter resolution imagery has provided greater confidence in the detection and identification of features on the ground. With advances in computational power and sensor resolution, the feasibility of broad-scale VHR ocean surveys using VHR satellite imagery with automated detection and classification processes has increased. Initial attempts at automated surveys are showing promising results, but further development is necessary to ensure reliability. A newly published paper discusses the future directions in which VHR satellite imagery might be used to address urgent questions in whale conservation.
The study of wildlife using satellite imagery commenced with the Landsat-1 satellite (80 m spatial resolution), initially launched in 1972 to monitor land cover, and later extended for habitat surveys and to map the distribution range of some species. Since then, there have been several technical developments, including improvements of optical sensors for an increased spatial resolution, with the development of VHR satellite allowing a sub-meter spatial resolution, allowing the detection of individual animals such as cattle, elephants, polar bears, grey seals, and albatrosses.
Monitoring whales using VHR satellite imagery was first attempted 2002; however, the 0.82 m spatial resolution provided by this satellite was not sufficient to make confident identifications. A change in US legislation in August 2014 increased the maximum spatial resolution for commercial satellite operators to 0.25 m. Rather than coarse imagery with rudimentary outlines of large objects, the greater spatial resolution of 0.25 m imagery allows the capture of more detail where smaller features can be identified with greater confidence. The launch of the WorldView-3 satellite in 2016, offering the highest commercially available spatial resolution of 0.31 m, is capable of capturing whale-defining features such as flukes, increasing the confidence in detections and making this satellite the most adapted for whale surveys.
Traditional cetacean surveys are challenging and expensive, often requiring dedicated research vessels or aircraft and are thus limited. Much of the ocean’s surface has not been surveyed for whales leaving large knowledge gaps that hinder efforts to make sound conservation decisions. VHR satellite imagery has the potential to fill knowledge gaps in whale research, allowing access to remote regions, as well as surveys of large spatial scope.
Further reading: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/3/963/htm
Thanks to:
Caroline Höschle, Hannah C. Cubaynes, Penny J. Clarke, Dr. Grant Humphries and Alex Borowicz.
BioConsult SH GmbH & Co.KG, Schobüller Str. 36, 25813 Husum, Germany
British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
Scott Polar Research Institute, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1TN, UK
UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
HiDef Aerial Surveying Limited, 17 Silvermills Court, Edinburgh EH3 5DG, UK
Department of Ecology & Evolution, Stony Brook University, New York, NY 11794, USA
As HiDef expands we are pleased to announce the recruitment of Aidan Harrison as Operations Manager. With more flights each month and increased logistical complexities Aidan is set for a busy time. An experienced senior manager with a background in continuous improvement and engineering, Aidan expands the team in Cumbria.
Operations Director Elaine Southward said “Controlled expansion of our operations has been part of our strategy. It’s good to see plans become reality and HiDef attract another skilled manager to the team”
ADDRESS:
The Observatory,
Dobies Business Park,
Lillyhall, Workington,
Cumbria, CA14 4HX
Tel: 01946 814463
Registered in England and Wales No. 5587044
Registered Office: The Observatory, Dobies Business Park, Lillyhall, Workington, Cumbria, CA14 4HX
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