Last Saturday the 16th of January, scientists from locally-based Airborne Research Australia (ARA) were able to use their world-class airborne remote sensing instrumentation to capture scientific data mapping vegetation health and 3-D structure across the affected St Kilda area. This is freely being shared with government departments, environmental experts and NGO's, just as ARA did for their bushfire assistance in early 2020.
Professor Jorg Hacker and instrument operator Shakti Chakravarty flew ARA's specially designed and configured research aircraft in a tight pattern of parallel lines covering the affected area in the early afternoon. ARA also captured ultra-high resolution aerial photography in October, when the damage was first becoming apparent, and other data three years ago before the current environmental stresses. These data starkly document the dead and dying vegetation tracing the drainage patterns from the adjacent brine ponds.
As a not-for-profit scientific research institute linked to Flinders University, ARA engages in environmental research projects across Australia, and is able to continue to exist, and respond at short notice to emergencies like this St. Kilda dieback because of tax-deductible donations. The Hackett Foundation is notable in its support for ARA's work.
In 2017, ARA mapped the mysterious dieback of large areas of mangroves along more than 3,000km of coastline of the Gulf of Carpentaria using the same sensor suite as used at St. Kilda (see https://www.airborneresearch.org.au/mangrove-dynamics). ARA director Dr. Andrew McGrath said today, "It's heartbreaking to see this level of damage unfolding in our own backyard. Mangroves and saltmarsh environments are critically important for many species, for Gulf water quality and supporting stocks for local fisheries, for sequestering carbon from the atmosphere, as well as the loss of natural beauty. ARA is pleased to be able to do what it can to help limit this and future damage."