Evelyn Piña‐Covarrubias, Andrew P. Hill, Peter Prince, Jake L. Snaddon, Alex Rogers, C. Patrick Doncaster, 2018, Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.97 

The rapid evolution in miniaturisation, power efficiency and affordability of acoustic sensors, combined with new innovations in smart capability, are vastly expanding opportunities in ground‐level monitoring for wildlife conservation at a regional scale, using massive sensor grids. We developed and field tested probabilistic algorithms for near‐optimal placement of acoustic sensors, and for localisation of sound sources. On hilly terrain, near‐optimal placement of gunshot sensors halved the required number of sensors compared to a square grid. These methods allow conservation biologists to plan cost‐effective deployments for measuring target sounds, and to evaluate the impacts of sub‐optimal placements imposed by access or cost constraints, or multipurpose uses.

We have created this short videocast about our work and the challenges involved in doing this kind of research entitled ‘Why do we need to optimise acoustic sensor deployment?’: