Previous workshops

Registration for this workshop is now closed.

• Considering the use of distance sampling for population assessment?
• Wish to have individual attention learning to analyse distance sampling data sets?
• Difficult to schedule and finance such training in Scotland?
• Consider taking the live online version of distance sampling training.

Registration for this workshop is now closed.

• Considering the use of distance sampling for population assessment?
• Wish to have individual attention learning to analyse distance sampling data sets?
• Difficult to schedule and finance such training in Scotland?
• Consider taking the live online version of distance sampling training.

Registration for this workshop is now closed.

• Considering the use of distance sampling for population assessment?
• Wish to have individual attention learning to analyse distance sampling data sets?
• Difficult to schedule and finance such training in Scotland?
• Consider taking the live online version of distance sampling training.

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]

The objective of this 3-day workshop is to give participants a solid grounding in the basic methods for design and analysis of distance sampling surveys. The course is intended for scientists conducting and/or analysing data for wildlife population assessments.

(more…)

Many of the options available in the Distance for Windows (Thomas et al. 2010) are now available in R packages (e.g. Distance, Miller 2017 and Miller et al. 2013; mrds, Laake et al 2018), but learning a new computing language can be daunting. The goal of this two-day workshop is to introduce participants to R. It is aimed at people who will attend the following distance sampling workshops, but have not used R before or are not comfortable using R.

(more…)

Overview

The Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling (CREEM) is hosting an intermediate-level workshop in the summer of 2018 in our purpose-built facilities at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. The workshops are taught by leading researchers in the field, using industry-standard software Distance and R.

The five day workshop will start on Monday 27 August at 09:00, with registration from 08:45, at CREEM, and finish on Friday 31 August at 17:00. Tea and coffee, as well as light lunches will be provided.

The first day 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 and a half days will be devoted to spatial modelling of distance sampling data (as described in Miller et al. (2013)). A blend of the latest version Distance 7 and the R computing language will be employed; participants will be able to do all exercises exclusively in R if they wish, while many will also be available on Distance 7 for those that prefer that software. Throughout the workshop, there will be open time, for instructors to work with participants on their specific problems.

Lecture materials, data and exercises will be available for participants to download prior to the workshop. We also 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 (24.99 GBP including shipping or local equivalent) to researchers from participating institutions (see this link for more information). Alternatively, participants can receive a copy of the above book, for a small additional charge — please indicate in the registration form.

Pre-requisites

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

Pre-requisite (a) can be fulfilled by understanding of fundamental materials 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); e.g., through previous training. The preferable way to become versed in conventional distance sampling principles is to take the online course recently made available by St Andrews. This course consists of video lectures, exercises (with solutions) and video demonstrations of the use of program Distance. The course can be viewed at this link:

https://workshops.distancesampling.org/online-course/

Pre-requisite (b) can be achieved by either working through instructional materials in R available at www.datacamp.com, or by attending the one-day “Distance sampling in R” workshop immediately preceeding this intermediate workshop (see Distance sampling in R One Day Workshop).

References

Buckland, S.T., D.R. Anderson, K.P. Burnham, J.L. Laake, D.L. Borchers & L. Thomas. 2001. Introduction to Distance Sampling. Oxford University Press. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/introduction-to-distance-sampling-9780198509271.
Buckland, S.T., E.A. Rexstad, T.A. Marques, and C.S. Oedekoven. 2015. Distance Sampling: Methods and Applications. Methods in Statistical Ecology. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19219-2.
Miller, D.L., M.L. Burt, E.A. Rexstad, and L. Thomas. 2013. Spatial models for distance sampling data: recent developments and future directions. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 4 (11):1001–1010. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12105.

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.

Fees cover tuition, course materials, a light lunch, morning and afternoon refreshments.

For those unable to travel to St Andrews to attend the intermediate workshop, a limited number of spaces are available to attend the workshop via videoconference link. Participants to the workshop via this medium will have reduced one-on-one interaction with instructors.

Consequently, videoconference participants will receive a 10% discount to their registration. Recognise the videoconference will be conducted in real time; if you are in time zones distant from Scotland, your sleep patterns will need to adjust for that week.

The number of places available for the online videoconference link registration is very limited, again places will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis on receipt of a completed a registration form and payment in full.

Payment

Payment is made via the University of St Andrews online payment service. Please note that If you are attending the one day R workshop prior to the main workshop the payment page for this workshop is after the delegate details page.

You will be asked to register if it is your first visit to the store. This is the link to the Online Payment Service. Confirmation of a place on the workshop will follow once payment has been received.

Location and Travel Information

Accommodation Information

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]

Overview

The goal of this one-day workshop is to introduce participants to the R language and software for statistics, in the context of analysis of distance sampling data. It is aimed at people who will attend the Intermediate Distance Sampling workshop starting the next day, but who are not fully comfortable with R.

We will start with the basics of the R language, and the R Studio interface, and move to data manipulation and analysis of conventional distance sampling (CDS) and multiple covariate distance sampling (MCDS) data. Participants are expected to already be familiar with conventional distance sampling we will be teaching how to do the analyses in R, rather than methdological details. The majority of the day will be spent in practical sessions.

The workshop will start at 9am, at CREEM, and finish at 5pm. Tea and coffee, as well as a light lunch, will be provided.

Registration and Payment

Registration for this workshop is an option as part of registering for the Intermediate workshop. Please follow this link to the Intermediate-level distance sampling training workshop page where the registration form and payment details are available.

The Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling at the University of St Andrews, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, will be holding a 5-day workshop on fitting geostatistical and spatial point process models to spatial survey data. The workshop will be held at the custom workshop facility at the Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling in St Andrews, Scotland.

(more…)

This 2-day workshop gives a comprehensive introduction to the application of HMMs to ecological data, comprising both theoretical lectures and hands-on practical sessions using R. In particular, participants will have the chance to analyse their own data within the practical sessions, supported by statisticians with considerable expertise on HMMs.

(more…)