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Google Street View as an alternative method to car surveys in large-scale vegetation assessments

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Abstract

Car surveys (CS) are a common method for assessing the distribution of alien invasive plants. Google Street View (GSV), a free-access web technology where users may experience a virtual travel along roads, has been suggested as a cost-effective alternative to car surveys. We tested if we could replicate the results from a countrywide survey conducted by car in Portugal using GSV as a remote sensing tool, aiming at assessing the distribution of Eucalyptus globulus Labill. wildlings on roadsides adjacent to eucalypt stands. Georeferenced points gathered along CS were used to create road transects visible as lines overlapping the road in GSV environment, allowing surveying the same sampling areas using both methods. This paper presents the results of the comparison between the two methods. Both methods produced similar models of plant abundance, selecting the same explanatory variables, in the same hierarchical order of importance and depicting a similar influence on plant abundance. Even though the GSV model had a lower performance and the GSV survey detected fewer plants, additional variables collected exclusively with GSV improved model performance and provided a new insight into additional factors influencing plant abundance. The survey using GSV required ca. 9 % of the funds and 62 % of the time needed to accomplish the CS. We conclude that GSV may be a cost-effective alternative to CS. We discuss some advantages and limitations of GSV as a survey method. We forecast that GSV may become a widespread tool in road ecology, particularly in large-scale vegetation assessments.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) in the frame of project “WildGum—a multi-scale approach to study the naturalization of blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus Labill.) in Portugal” (FCT PTDC/AGR-FOR/2471/2012); E.D. was supported by a doctoral grant (PB/BD/113936/2015); F.X.C. was supported by a postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/93373/2013); and FM was funded by the REN Biodiversity Chair and FCT (IF/01053/2015).

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  1. Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal

    Ernesto Deus & Miguel Rocha

  2. Centre for Applied Ecology “Prof. Baeta Neves”, InBIO Associate Laboratory, School of Agriculture, University of Lisbon, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017, Lisboa, Portugal

    Ernesto Deus, Joaquim S. Silva, Filipe X. Catry & Francisco Moreira

  3. School of Agriculture, Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Bencanta, 3045-601, Coimbra, Portugal

    Joaquim S. Silva & Miguel Rocha

  4. REN Biodiversity Chair, Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources, InBIO Associate Laboratory, University of Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, 4485-601, Vairão, Portugal

    Francisco Moreira

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Correspondence to Ernesto Deus.

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Deus, E., Silva, J.S., Catry, F.X. et al. Google Street View as an alternative method to car surveys in large-scale vegetation assessments. Environ Monit Assess 188, 560 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-016-5555-1

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