Improving waterbird monitoring and conservation in the Sahel using remote sensing: a case study with the International Waterbird Census in Sudan

In several regions of the world, remoteness potential bird hotspots and lack trained observers have often prevented countries from effectively designing proper monitoring schemes at a national scale. For many countries, it is not known whether certain strongholds been missed that should be included for more complete censuses. Such gaps scales, sometimes large, may detrimental global schemes. To address this, we used irregular participation Sudan to International Waterbird Census (IWC) as case study. We designed tested method based on remote-sensing data country’s lowlands detect open water bodies in order develop predictive models distribution waterbird abundance diversity. identify their flooding duration, Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) derived Landsat 8 data. Field ornithological surveys were then ground-truth estimate method’s accuracy. The statistical results (overall accuracy = 0.972; Kappa index 0.93) confirmed its effectiveness. Remotely sensed additional environmental covariates build simple habitat diversity IWC field survey Of 3119 remotely clusters bodies, three predicted host than 10 000 waterbirds, 89 1000 waterbirds five 30 species. Located mainly southern agricultural floodplains along main rivers, these are therefore recommended inclusion next Sudan. Our findings indicate using remote sensing combined with modelling likely cost-effective solution improve sampling enhance both wetland vast under-surveyed regions.