- Fieldworks
- Consulting
Determination of bat activity classes by species and region in Wallonia
- Type of mandate Data management and analysis expertise, scientific expertise, bat ecology expertise, development of interactive data tools (R / Shiny)
- Completed 2025-2026
- Location Wallonia
- 78 reference datasets generated from 6.8 million sequences
- 6 species considered sensitive to wind energy and 5 acoustic groups in Wallonia concerned
- 3 habitats and 2 different time periods were taken into account
- 1 application developed (via ShinyApp)
As part of public contract O3.02.03-24-2282, lot 2, in partnership with CSDIngénieurs, we developed various reference frameworks aimed at providing an objective perspective on the quantitative assessment of bat activity across different study contexts.
First, an analysis of reference frameworks developed in Europe was conducted to inform the discussion regarding Wallonia. Additionally, literature reviews on equipment-related biases were also carried out.
In a second phase, we collected nearly 6.8 million 5-second sequences from SonoChrio files across various projects. Based on this, we were able to retain 3.8 million data points through data cleaning and standardization, as well as the modeling of a logistic regression for each species. This approach allows us to retain, for each species, data exceeding a confidence threshold provided by SonoChrio and defined by the logistic regression.
Furthermore, to account for local environmental conditions, we constructed three distinct habitat classes based on LifeWatch’s Ecotope layers and tree lines: open, edge, and forest. The phenology of the species was considered by classifying two periods relevant to bat ecology: the gestation and lactation period from April 1 to July 31, and the weaning, swarming, and migration period from August 1 to October 31.
To confirm the relevance of these frameworks, survey data were used to compare the results against the framework. Furthermore, to facilitate the use of this framework, we developed an interactive application, enabling easier and more intuitive visualization.
