Dmitrii Sarychev, Russia
Navigation: 2015 Scholar Project 2015Conference ReferenceProject CommunitiesPage ConservationGIS Scgis.org
Dmitrii Sarychev, Russia, Crane Working Group of Eurasi
a (CWGE).
xBird xDistribution xRemote xEndangered xSpecies xTracking x2015Scholar x2015Talk xTalk xScholar xRussia xeurope
2019 Status LINKEDIN Profile
Ph.D. student/Senior Lecturer, Voronezh State University , Russian Federation
2015 Conference Paper:
"Identification of Valuable Habitats by GIS Modelling in Lipetsk Region of Russia"
* Presenter: Dmitrii Sarychev, Russia, Crane Working Group of Eurasia (CWGE)
Identification and analysis of rare species distribution and their habitats are highly important for biodiversity conservation. GIS and Remote Sensing offer the most effective way of such identification. In this research, Lipetsk Region of Russia is used as a model region for spatial analysis of the rare species distribution and for optimization of the protected area network. Nesting sites of Red List bird species were chosen as biological indicators of the valuable habitats. Environmental criteria of known valuable habitats were estimated using proximity and geostatistical analyses of imagery data (Landsat, SRTM) and thematic maps. A special GIS model was developed by Graphical Modeler of QGIS. The model incorporates all the criteria and spatial data for identifying potentially valuable habitats. The potentially suitable nesting habitats of about 60 rare bird species were identified, and an integrated map of valuable habitats was produced as a result. Preliminary estimations show that only 45 percent of all valuable habitats are protected, and there are three major unprotected territories with another 34 percent of the valuable habitats that are important for inclusion in the protected area network of Lipetsk Region. The developed workflow can be used as a tool for conservation strategy optimization in other regions of Russia.
2015 Scholar Profile:
*-Organization name: Crane Working Group of Eurasia (CWGE)
*-Organization full street address: Moscow, Bolshaya Gruzinskaya St., 1
*-Organization full mailing address, if different: Same
*-Country: Russian Federation
*-Work phone with country and area code: +7(495) 679-10-57
*-Work fax with country and area code: No
*-Main email: cranewg@gmail.com
describe the work that your current organization does: Crane Working Group of Eurasia (CWGE) is non-profit society organization. It was created in 1980 in the Ornithological Committee of the USSR as the Crane Working Group (CWG) of the USSR for the promotion of crane protection and research. It was the first species working group in the USSR. From 1980 to 1990, the CWG had been working very actively and productively. Its activity included organization of six crane workshops and publication of six crane workshop proceedings, regular printing of newsletters, interviews of CWG members for TV, radio and newspapers. All these activities stimulated researches and crane conservation efforts, as well as supported crane professional ornithologists and crane lovers. From 1990 to 2000, because of the collapse USSR and some other reasons, the Crane Working Group of the USSR ceased to be active. On October 28, 2000 in Moscow the Crane Working Group of Eurasia activity was announced and its goal and aim were determined. Now CWGE joins together 230 members from nine former USSR countries. CWGE members are mostly professional ornithologist (staff of scientific institutes, nature reserves), but also university mentors, teachers, student, nature conservationists, crane lovers.
The main aim of the Crane Working Group of Eurasia is strengthen the conservation of seven crane species in North Eurasia though research, habitat protection, education, public awareness and information exchange.
Besides of professional work of CWGE members on crane research, protection, captive breeding and reintroduction, most of them participated in different international, regional, national and local projects such as, for example, UNEP/GEF Siberian Crane Wetlands Project, Project on Hunter Education in Central Asia supported by Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, “Flight of Hope” project on restoration of endangered Western/Central population of the Siberian Crane, “Three White Cranes, Two Flyways, One World” education project implemented in China, Russia and USA and supported by International Crane Foundation (ICF), project on restoration of the Red-crowned Crane population using captive breeding birds in the Russian Far East and etc. CWGE members were involved in preparation of global review publications such as Cranes and Climate Change (2014), Cranes and Agriculture (under preparation) and IUCCN Crane Conservation Plan (under preparation) where assessments of modern status and GIS maps were prepared for six of 15 world crane species. CWGE members participate in joined field works on investigation of status of rare species, ground and aerial surveys for collection information about crane habitats for GIS analyses (for Red-crowned, Hooded and Eurasian Cranes), crane color banding and marking with satellite transmitters.
Since 2002 CWGE initiated wide-scale ecological education action “Crane Celebration”, which now holds in more than 100 sites in nine countries with participation of few thousand people including students of different age, teachers, mentors, professional ornithologists, staff of n
ature reserves, scientific institutes, universities, zoos as well as general public and local administrations. CWGE supports Crane Celebration with various information and education materials and crane souvenirs thanks to finance support from Secretariat of Convention of Migratory Species, International Crane Foundation, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Luftganza Airlines and sponsors.
describe your personal role in the organization: I am a member of Crane Working Group of Eurasia (CWGE) since 2011. My work in the organization can be divided into three main directions: general GIS work of CWGE, my regional conservation project and GIS teaching. I became a GIS volunteer of CWGE in early 2014. The fact is the majority of CWGE members are regional experts, some of them apply GIS but mainly in their own local projects. However, there is no GIS specialist in the CWGE headquarter for integration of spatial data and executing of general projects. In order to fix this situation, I have started to do some GIS work of CWGE on a voluntary basis. So I am working on overall GIS tasks of CWGE such as collection and integration of spatial data from regional experts/members, fine-scale mapping and participating in international GIS projects for conservation.
I have been doing all GIS part of work behalf of CWGE in a huge project of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) - Crane Conservation Plan. This project brings together hundreds of local specialists from nine former USSR countries. They sent a lot of heterogeneous descriptive or spatial data on the distributions of the certain species in their regions to the headquarter of CWGE. I georeferenced the data and generalized them to produce overall maps of the crane species ranges and flyways. The draft maps were sent to all participants to get their feedback and make respective fixes. So together we have updated the range maps of critically endangered Siberian Crane, endangered Red-crowned Crane, vulnerable White-naped Crane, rare Hooded Crane and locally threatened Demoiselle and Eurasian Cranes. These are six out of 15 crane species of the world. All the produced maps in three file formats (as JPG pictures, KML and shapefiles) are available to view and download here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bxj30Nqi0eOfdndQMG5Ldk9zQkE&usp=sharing.
As a GIS volunteer of CWGE I've taken part in a GIS project of International Crane Foundation (ICF). Dorn Moore, Spatial Analyst of ICF and I have developed a special GIS tool for positioning of a remote object by triangulation "Triangulate the XY of Remote Location" (the tool web page: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=ced07bf9669e44c38b2529175f14674f). The project is addressed to meet some conservationists’ tasks which deal with identification locations of wildlife objects remotely, without touching. The original aim of the tool is birds with radiotransmitters, but it has been redesigned for applying to any interesting objects of field observations. So the tool is mainly intended for positioning of mobile animals with loud voices, some visual behavior or special transmitters. The input triangulation data should include azimuths to an observed object from three points of observation and the coordinates of the observation points. The tool calculates the coordinates of the aim, estimates an error of the measurements and displays results as points of observation, bearing lines, the point of aim and the buffer of location accuracy.
GIS teaching: This is a very important part of my work as a GIS volunteer. I like to help my colleagues and regional specialists who are mainly ornithologists to figure GIS things out. Apart from some Russian CWGE members and local conservationists I have been helping Ferdi Akarsu, a Turkish ornithologist, to design a GIS model of habitat suitability indexes for threatened Demoiselle Crane species. And I have been teaching GIS Jigme Tshering, a Bhutanese ornithologist, by Skype. Jigme has unique Platform Transmitter Terminal (PTT) data on migrations of endangered Black-necked Cranes. And I've been teaching him how to use GIS for visualizing and analysis of his data (e.g. a simple map of a Black-Necked Crane migration route by PTT data: https://qgiscloud.com/DmitriiS/black_necked_crane_ptt_62754).
describe the history of your personal work in conservation and GIS: My homeland, Lipetsk Region, is a part of Black Earth Region, the old agricultural center of Russia. This region has already been exposing by high anthropogenic impacts for a few centuries. So there are only some small islands of intact nature encircled by croplands and settlements. The great scientific value of one of such islands, due to the plethora of relict and endemic species, was discovered back in the late 19th century during the botanic expeditions. Realizing how unique and fragile the discovered ecosystem was, there was organized a special preservation area. So, founded in 1925 the nature reserve "Galichya Gora" became one of the first protected areas of Russia.
My parents are biologists, they have been working in the nature reserve "Galichya Gora" since the mid-70s. This is the place I grew up and lived before my university study. So I have been dealing with nature conservation issues since childhood. I've been participating in annual regional youth ecological expeditions since 2003 and have been helping to organize them since 2008. The expeditions help me not only collect field data for my regional conservation project, but also they allow sharing some research experience and skills with children. I believe such environmental education is more effective than just teaching at schools. The expeditions teach to love the homeland through direct showing the beauty and conservation needs of its nature. They provide good knowledge of geography and history of the region and some skills of research and mapping.
The expeditionary experience reinforced my decision to devote my life to nature conservation. So after the school I went to the Faculty of Geography and Ecology of Voronezh State University. My main interest in the period of education was geographical information systems. As a spatial analyst I participated in two grant based projects. The first is the research of natural systems dynamics of the reserve "Galichya Gora" after the pyrogenic impact and the second is the exploration of ecological security of urban areas of Central Black Earth Region of Russia. I co-organize the conference "GIS-mapping in regions of Russia" on the basis of my university department in 2009 and since then the conference has taken place annually. I graduated from the university with a Master's degree in Environmental Monitoring. I came back due to my regional conservation project. So, I had applied for PhD program in landscape ecology and started it at Voronezh State University in 2014.
The university has no special GIS educational programs, but it has a few courses. As a research assistant I conduct some GIS courses for starters and I have conducted two open GIS workshops. I always insisted on expansion of GIS training programs at the university. And some of my offers have already been approved by the university administration. So I am going to open a new course on application of GIS and Remote Sensing in ecological research at my department in 2016.
Funding is a cornerstone of many conservation efforts. So I like to be a volunteer. I was a recycling volunteer at my university. I am a GIS volunteer in the nature reserve "Galichya Gora" since 2009. I was working as a mapmaker on the volunteer base in Voronezhsky State Nature Biosphere Reserve for a short time in 2011. And I am going there as a GIS volunteer this year. I have already collected the set of multispectral satellite scenes of Landsat, SPOT and ICONOS of the nature reserve territory and currently I have been discussing the needs of spatial analysis for research projects of the local specialists. But the most exciting of my volunteer experience is the work in CWGE. I have been participating in some important international GIS/conservation projects behalf of CWGE since 2014 (please see subsection above for details).
