Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute’s Post

TODAY is #gisday and to celebrate, we wanted to give you a sneak peak into some of the work our Geospatial Foundations team does with lidar. Wait, what’s lidar, you ask? It’s short for Light Detection and Ranging, and here’s how it works: A sensor that shoots a laser to the ground is mounted on an airplane. We can calculate the distance the laser traveled based on the time it takes to get back to the plane, and we can use that distance to get information about the terrain surface and height of vegetation. Our team uses lidar, in part, to collect detailed information they can then use to map human land-use and natural disturbances, and to quantify vegetation regrowth on these features. This is useful for mapping habitat recovery for threatened species, for example,  like woodland caribou. By understanding the status of caribou habitat, and recovery rates on various habitat disturbance features associated with caribou declines, habitat restoration efforts can be more effectively prioritized. #ABMIatWork #lidar #biodiversity #biodiversitymonitoring #habitat

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