Advanced Distance Sampling

The first part of the workshop will review fundamental principles of distance sampling, analyses involving conventional distance sampling, and survey design. Attention will turn to simulation of distance sampling surveys for design purposes, and to survey and analysis methods for dealing with imperfect detection on the trackline (double-observer methods). Roughly two days will be devoted to spatial modelling of distance sampling data (as described in Miller et al. 2013). R will be used in all practical sessions. Throughout the workshop, there will be time for participants to work on problems specific to their data with instructors.

We recommend owning a copy of Buckland et al. (2015). A soft-cover copy of this book is available via Springer MyCopy at a very reasonable price to researchers from participating institutions, follow this link to the site.

There are two pre-requisites for the advanced-level workshop: a) understanding of conventional distance sampling and b) basic competence with the R programming language.

Pre-requisite (a) can be fulfilled by taking the ‘Introduction distance sampling’ workshop or working through the online course made available by CREEM. This online course consists of video lectures and exercises (with solutions). View the course. Alternatively, the material is presented in Buckland et al. (2001, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5 and 7) or Buckland et al. (2015, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6).

Pre-requisite (b) can be achieved by either working through instructional materials in R available at www.datacamp.com, or by attending the “Introduction to R (for Distance Sampling)” workshop.

Registration Information

The number of participants on the workshop will be restricted to 35. Places will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis on receipt of a completed a registration form and payment in full. Registration and payment details are below.

Online participation

For those unable to travel to St Andrews, a limited number of spaces are available to attend the Advanced Distance Sampling Workshop via videoconference link. Online participants will have reduced one-on-one interaction with instructors and consequently, videoconference participants will receive a 10% discount to their registration fees. The videoconference will be conducted in real time: if you are in time zones distant from Scotland, your sleep patterns will need to adjust. Online participation will not be available for the introductory courses.

Before registering as an online participant, please check that your broadband internet connection at the location where you will take the course is both fast and reliable enough to allow audio and video to be transferred in real time. To determine whether this will be feasible, please contact the CREEM IT Officer, email: [email protected] who will send instructions of how to test your system.

The number of places available for the online videoconference link registration is very limited: places will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis on receipt of a completed a registration form, payment in full and a successful test of the internet connection. Please start this process at least four weeks before the start of the workshop to allow sufficient time for testing and the payment to be processed.

Enquiries

Please contact:
Rhona Rodger, Workshop Administrator
Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling
University of St Andrews
The Observatory, Buchanan Gardens
St. Andrews
Scotland KY16 9LZ
Tel:+44 (0) 1334 461842
Email: [email protected]