During 2024 and 2025, the USFWS Coastal Program and the Long Island Sound Partnership collaborated with the University of Rhode Island to study the advantages and limitations of map products from three different remote sensing platforms (satellite, aerial, and small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), aka drones)). Map data provide essential baseline information for federal and state government agencies, conservation groups, restoration ecologists, and the general scientific community. The results of this intercomparison study conclude that all three platforms provide useful monitoring data that when taken collectively, can provide consistent, comprehensive, and comparable results that can be used to confidently determine trends in eelgrass distribution over decadal time scales. Therefore, a monitoring plan was developed that includes all three remote sensing platforms supported and enhanced by field surveys using divers and underwater video.
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