Biodiversity monitoring with intelligent sensors: An integrated pipeline for mitigating animal-vehicle collisions

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Abstract
Transports of people and goods contribute to the ongoing 6th mass extinction of species. They impact species viability by reducing the availability of suitable habitat, by limiting connectivity between suitable patches, and by increasing direct mortality due to collisions with vehicles. Not only does it represent a threat for some species conservation capabilities, but animal vehicle collisions (AVC) is also a threat for human safety and security in transport and has a massive cost for transport infrastructure (TI) managers and users. Using the opportunities offered by the increasing number of sensors embedded into TI and the development of their digital twins, we developed a framework aiming at managing AVC by mapping the collision risk between trains and ungulates (roe deer and wild boar) thanks to the deployment of a camera trap network. The proposed framework uses population dynamic simulations to identify collision hotspots and assist with the design of sensors deployment. Once sensors are deployed, the data collected, here photos, are processed through deep learning to detect and identify species at the TI vicinity. Then, the processed data are fed to an abundance model able to map species relative abundance around the TI as a proxy of the collision risk. We implement the framework on an actual section of railway in south-western France benefiting from a mitigation and monitoring strategy. The implementation thus highlighted the technical and fundamental requirements to effectively mainstream biodiversity concerns in the TI digital twins. This would contribute to the AVC management in autonomous vehicles thanks to connected TI.

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