Cost-effective Drone Monitoring and Evaluating Toolkits for Stream Habitat Health: Development and Application

Abstract Effective monitoring for stream habitat health is essential for sustainable restoration and management to conserve ecosystem services. Traditional in-situ surveying with multi-metric indices is widely used by state and federal agencies but is often labor-intensive and spatially limited. To address these challenges, this study introduces a suite of cost-effective drone-based monitoring toolkits that streamline habitat evaluation through three key components: flight route design, image data processing, and stream habitat health assessment using multi-metric indices. The toolkits were examined at Black Earth Creek, Wisconsin, where high- and low-elevation drone images were collected and processed to generate high-resolution ortho-photos and terrain maps. These data were used to evaluate stream habitat health based on multi-metric indices, yielding results that are closely aligned with conventional surveys. Beyond improving efficiency, the toolkits allow for spatially continuous assessments, overcoming limitations of traditional transect-based methods that may overlook critical landscape features. Additionally, the toolkits help pinpoint degradation hotspots, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of stream habitat health management. By significantly reducing labor and costs associated with data collection, processing, and assessment, these toolkits have the potential to support broader and more frequent stream habitat health evaluations and improve long-term conservation planning.