DeepVerge: Classification of roadside verge biodiversity and conservation potential

Grasslands are increasingly modified by anthropogenic activities, and species-rich grasslands have become rare habitats in the UK. However, grassy roadside verges often contain conservation priority plant species that should be targeted for protection. Identification of verges with high conservation potential represents a considerable challenge for ecologists, driving the development of automated methods to make up for the shortfall of relevant expertise nationally. Using survey data from 3900 km of roadside verges alongside publicly available street-view imagery, we present DeepVerge: a deep learning-based method that can automatically survey sections of roadside verge based on the presence of positive indicator species. Using images and ground truth survey data from the rural UK county of Lincolnshire, DeepVerge achieved a mean accuracy of 88% and a mean F1 score of 0.82 based on a five-fold cross-validation. We argue that with suitable locale-specific fine-tuning, such a method may be used by local authorities to identify new local wildlife sites, and aid management and environmental planning in line with legal and government policy obligations.