Restoration in the Western Ghats
Alex Carpenter and Cristina Toledo on the restoration plot
Since 2022, TfW has been engaging with the Goa Botanical Sanctuary to explore the use of technology to aid ecological restoration on their 150 hectares of privately owned land in the Goan western ghats. The project slowly developed into a collaboration of practitioners and researchers in Goa working on restoration. Together, we are working to create open-source methods combining ground, UAV and satellite data to assess degradation across their land, and use it as a means to direct restoration efforts as well as monitor progress over time.
The final product of this is experimentation is a model that identifies degradation factors on their land. Using computer-vision to train drone data to identify degradation factors, we enhanced existing satellite-based models to better identify degradation factors, as they look in this context. These maps can be used to direct resources for restoration in the area, and track progress over time. We hope the methods (soon to be published) will be helpful to others working on similar projects in the Western Ghats.
