FragMAP: a tool for long-term and cooperative monitoring and analysis of fragile ecosystem using an unmanned aerial vehicle

Small features of fragile ecosystem cannot be resolved using remote-sensing satellite images and they are too numerous and too irregular to be measured easily and efficiently on the ground. As a result, studies at small scales are inadequate. We demonstrated a practical tool that can be used for the long-term and cooperative monitoring and analysis of small-scale features of fragile ecosystem with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). It is stable, robust, efficient, and easy to operate. More importantly, it is designed to be used in a cooperative way within a team and among groups and for long-term repeated monitoring. This tool is suitable for widespread deployment to establish a monitoring network studying status and rate of change. More than 100,000 aerial photographs over fragile regions of China were collected and analyzed to study the spatial pattern and change of vegetation cover, aboveground biomass, plateau pika hole, bare patch, vegetation species, etc.