Remote Sensing: Garry Oak Species Detection Project

Presentation by Ryan Senechal at the GOMPS AGM on November 17th, 2024

Summary

Garry Oak Meadow Preservation Society is a volunteer-run non-profit based in Saanich, BC that advocates for 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 Mapping and analysis of the overall Garry oak ecosystem and individual trees in the Capital Regional District is out of date. LiDAR is a cost-effective, high accuracy method of forest analysis that enables measurements such as change to tree populations through intensifying land development. Our interest is 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.

Analysis

Our initial analysis goals are to perform Garry oak species detection within a minimum of a single municipality (City of Victoria) and eventually expand the method to survey all municipalities in the Capital Regional District. We hope to have located and calculated the overall Garry oak canopy area. Our 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.

Presentation slides (.pdf)

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