Tourism is one of the most impacted sectors from the Covid-19 pandemic. The extent of the impact is expected to be particularly severe for tourist destinations where the virus is actively circulating and tourism plays an important role in the economy. With a rich endowment of tourism potential, the Hauts-de-France (HdF) was part of the French regions classified as Covid-19 "red zone" the day after deconfinement (May 11th). The research project THREpiCo addresses the issue of the consequences of this pandemic on both tourism demand and supply. In terms of tourism demand, the project aims at understanding individuals’ perceptions of the region with regard to the Covid-19 epidemic risk and analysing the role of their perceptions in their visit behaviour and revisit intentions. Particular attention will be paid to the individuals’ trust in regional policy-makers and confidence in Covid-19 risk mitigation measures. The changes in demand for trips and individual welfare due to the pandemic will also be explored. In terms of tourism supply, a number of Covid-19 health and safety protocols, combined with related communication strategies, have been implemented, particularly in the commercial accommodation sector, in an effort to restore visitors’ confidence and stimulate demand. Another objective of this project is to investigate the attractiveness of these tools among visitors by estimating the extra amount of money that they would be willing to pay for one night in a hotel establishment. Finally, additional changes are expected to be made in the regional tourism industry in the medium term to strengthen the resilience of the sector. With this in mind, qualitative survey interviews of tourism stakeholders will be carried out with the objective of co-constructing a restructuring plan for the tourism supply organised into different actions (or scenarios). An ex-ante economic valuation of these scenarios will be conducted to support the decision-making process. This research project will be led by a multidisciplinary research team, whose expertise covers all aspects related to the impact analysis of a pandemic on tourism. The team will rely on close collaboration with the diverse tourism-based organisations within the HdF and the original combination of several non-market economic valuation methods, quantitative and qualitative surveys, coupled with the use of secondary data about tourist trips during the last ten years, to provide a broad picture of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourism activity in the HdF. The expected results are empirical, methodological and operational.

"Tourism is one of the most impacted sectors from the Covid-19 pandemic. The extent of the impact is expected to be particularly severe for tourist destinations where the virus is actively circulating and tourism plays an important role in the economy. With a rich endowment of tourism potential, the Hauts-de-France (HdF) was part of the French regions classified as Covid-19 ""red zone"" the day after deconfinement (May 11th). The research project THREpiCo addresses the issue of the consequences of this pandemic on both tourism demand and supply. In terms of tourism demand, the project aims at understanding individuals’ perceptions of the region with regard to the Covid-19 epidemic risk and analysing the role of their perceptions in their visit behaviour and revisit intentions. Particular attention will be paid to the individuals’ trust in regional policy-makers and confidence in Covid-19 risk mitigation measures. The changes in demand for trips and individual welfare due to the pandemic will also be explored. In terms of tourism supply, a number of Covid-19 health and safety protocols, combined with related communication strategies, have been implemented, particularly in the commercial accommodation sector, in an effort to restore visitors’ confidence and stimulate demand. Another objective of this project is to investigate the attractiveness of these tools among visitors by estimating the extra amount of money that they would be willing to pay for one night in a hotel establishment. Finally, additional changes are expected to be made in the regional tourism industry in the medium term to strengthen the resilience of the sector. With this in mind, qualitative survey interviews of tourism stakeholders will be carried out with the objective of co-constructing a restructuring plan for the tourism supply organised into different actions (or scenarios). An ex-ante economic valuation of these scenarios will be conducted to support the decision-making process. This research project will be led by a multidisciplinary research team, whose expertise covers all aspects related to the impact analysis of a pandemic on tourism. The team will rely on close collaboration with the diverse tourism-based organisations within the HdF and the original combination of several non-market economic valuation methods, quantitative and qualitative surveys, coupled with the use of secondary data about tourist trips during the last ten years, to provide a broad picture of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourism activity in the HdF. The expected results are empirical, methodological and operational."

Marine megafauna includes marine mammals, sea turtles, sharks and rays that are increasingly threatened worldwide. These species occur at low densities over vast areas so an efficient and large-scale monitoring method is urgently needed to identify and protect their critical habitats. Drones are emerging low-cost and low-carbon technologies for monitoring megafauna from the air. However, existing drone surveys fail to achieve both large spatial coverage and high image resolution. The higher the drone altitude, the larger spatial coverage but at the expense of image resolution. Yet, high image resolution is key to derive accurate species identifications and individual body measurements. To break this compromise between spatial coverage and image resolution, the overall objective of SMART-WING is to design an adaptive survey methodology based on an intelligent wing able to switch between high and low altitude modes. We will embed an artificial intelligence (AI) detection model in a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) wing characterized by a flexible long-range flight. The wing will be pre-programmed in high-altitude mode (160 m for ~2 cm / pixel ground resolution) for large-scale survey coverage. In the event of megafauna detection, it will descend to lower altitude (40 m) and dynamically track the animal, transitioning from horizontal survey to vertical hovering to acquire high-resolution images (~0.5 cm / pixel), so representing a 4-time gain in ground resolution. The wing will then resume its initial high-altitude survey. We hypothesise that this novel method will provide an increased image resolution without compromising spatial coverage. We will implement SMART-WING in the vast lagoon of Mayotte hosting exceptional but poorly known populations of marine mammals, sea turtles, sharks and rays. SMART-WING will provide novel ecological information on megafauna populations at low financial and carbon costs toward the identification of key areas for their protection. The project has 3 scientific objectives: 1) Develop a smart wing prototype. We will develop an affordable, long-endurance, eco-responsible and easy-to-operate VTOL wing able to fly both horizontally and vertically. The wing will be equipped with a mini-computer embedding a lightweight AI model to detect megafauna species in real time. We will implement a re-routing algorithm on the wing’s autopilot in order to adapt the trajectory to real-time detections. The wing prototype will be tested in coastal habitats of the Mediterranean Sea and then in Mayotte to gradually improve its operational performance. 2) Monitor species-specific abundances and body characteristics. We will deploy the wing to monitor megafauna across thousands of hectares in Mayotte’s coastal habitats during 2 seasons and 2 successive years. We will analyse the collected images with a full-size AI model, quantifying performance gain when switching from the high-altitude and to the low-altitude flight mode. We will then apply this AI model to high-resolution images to estimate species-specific abundances as well as individual sizes and body conditions. 3) Simulate marine protected area (MPAs) scenarios to safeguard megafauna. We will build statistical models to relate species-specific abundances and relevant environmental predictors in order to provide abundance predictions in unsurveyed areas of Mayotte. We will then use systematic conservation planning algorithms to derive scenarios of strict MPA establishment for safeguarding megafauna while accounting for the loss of fishery catches. SMART-WING will pave the way toward the development of a new generation of drones able to dynamically adjust their trajectory in real time for the optimised survey of rare and vulnerable species. It will foster cross-domain interactions between scientists in aerial robotics (I3S and ISEN), artificial intelligence (LIRMM), marine ecology (CUFR, MARBEC) and environmental management (OFB-PMM).