Advances in remote sensing of freshwater fish habitat: A systematic review to identify current approaches, strengths and challenges

Abstract

Remote sensing technology offers the ability to derive information on freshwater fish habitats across broad geographic areas and has the potential to transform approaches to monitoring. However, the numerous platforms, sensors and analytical software that are available may overwhelm those interested in utilizing this important technology and thus limit its broad application and uptake. Our review is intended to shed light on the capacity of this technology to transform freshwater fish habitat monitoring by examining the fundamental characteristics of the major remote sensing technologies that have been used for characterizing freshwater habitats, conducting a systematic literature review of studies that have used remote sensing technologies to characterize freshwater fish habitats and, highlighting some of the key habitat features, fish species and regions, that have been examined. Lastly, we identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of the various remote sensing technologies that can be used, recommend future research that could help improve the use of these technologies, and, provide a series of important considerations for those who are interested in utilizing these technologies for freshwater fish habitat characterization.