University surveys Northumberland National Park by satellite
Officials from the National Park and the Ministry of Defence will be visiting the University's Department of Geomatics to see computer-enhanced photographs of the Otterburn military training area, taken by satellite 670 km above the earth.
The photographs show areas covered by different types of vegetation such as trees, bracken, grass and heather. The photographs, which only became possible to obtain a few months ago with the launch of a high-tech American satellite, are of such high quality that it is possible to make out an individual tank and to distinguish between different species of heather.
Leading the project is a German research student, Henny Mehner, 24, who is on a placement from the University of Dresden. She is being supervised by Dr David Fairbairn, a lecturer in the Department of Geomatics.
The last survey of the habitats of the Northumberland National Park was made in 1992 — by volunteers who walked the length and breadth of the park, making notes as they went.
‘It was a huge exercise,’ said Henny. ‘I calculated that it must have taken 717 man-days to complete, so you would not expect the exercise to be repeated on a regular basis.
‘The beauty of satellite images is that they are easy to obtain and they reduce the risk of human error. It is much easier to check a photograph than to check if someone’s notes are accurate.’
The satellite photographs used in this project cover only the military area, which makes up about one-fifth of the total of the Northumberland National Park.
Dr Fairbairn explained: ‘Our objective is to demonstrate that satellites can play a useful role in conservation in the future. We are showing our visitors that the method works — but we have not attempted draw conclusions about the habitats. ‘It would be a much bigger and more costly exercise to obtain photographs of the whole of the national park, analyse them and compare the results to the 1992 survey. Nevertheless, it may well prove to be more efficient than doing another survey on the ground.’
Dr Fairbairn said that the military area of the National Park was of particular interest because the habitats are relatively undisturbed by humans. The photographs had identified a number of border mires — a type of habitat which has largely disappeared in Britain, to the detriment of several species of animals and plants.
Contact: Dr David Fairbairn, (0191) 222 6353. E-mail: Dave.Fairbairn@ncl.ac.uk. This press release is issued by the University Press Office, (0191) 222 7850.
published on: 17th May 2001