The Remote Sensing: Garry Oak Species Detection Project is scheduled for June 2025.
Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society is a volunteer-run non-profit based in Saanich, BC providing advocacy functions around individual Garry oak and Garry oak ecosystem protection and stewardship. Mapping and analysis of the overall Garry oak ecosystem and individual trees in the Capital Regional District is out of date and utilizes methods that prevent cost-effective updates and efficient temporal analysis. Our interest is in developing a new approach to mapping Garry oak species presence using LiDAR and geoAI. By conducting species specific detection analysis to form a species composition baseline, we can enable future analysis opportunities that are Garry oak specific.
The Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society (GOMPS) has partnered with Terra Remote Sensing, a geospatial data acquisition company, for an upcoming project. GOMPS is in interested in developing a new approach to map Garry oak species presence using LiDAR and machine learning. By conducting species specific detection analysis to form a species composition baseline, we can enable future analysis opportunities that are Garry oak and Garry oak ecosystem specific. This is an important contribution to a growing body of regional urban forest mapping that could influence changes in tree protection policies (e.g., enhanced existing tree protections and requirements for Garry oak replacement trees through private development), and management and planning for Garry oaks on public property.
GOMPS initial analysis goals are to perform Garry oak species detection within two municipalities (City of Victoria, and District of Saanich’s Urban Containment Boundary), and eventually expand the method to survey all municipalities in the Capital Regional District. GOMPS hopes to have located and calculated the overall Garry oak canopy area. The goal is to offer the Garry oak mapping and high-resolution raw LiDAR/ortho data flown for this project publicly. This data sharing will support researchers, community members and other nonprofit organizations with our Garry oak species analysis, and also enable additional novel data analysis approaches supporting Garry oaks and Garry oak ecosystems. LiDAR Species Detection flight window is set for the week of June 23, 2025.
Presentation Slides: