Comparison of different methods to assess the distribution of alien plants along the road network and use of Google Street View panoramas interpretation in Sicily (Italy) as a case study

The survey by foot in the field is compared to the survey from a car, the photo-interpretation of Google Street View (GSV) panoramas continuously and at intervals of 1.5 km and the photo-interpretation of Google Earth aerial images on a 10 km stretch of road in Sicily. The survey by foot was used as reference for the other methods. The interpretation of continuous GSV panoramas gave similar results as the assessment by car in terms of the number of species identified and their location, but with lower cost. The interpretation online of aerial photos allowed the identification of a limited number of taxa, but gave a good localisation for them. Interpretation of GSV panoramas, each of 1.5 km, allowed the recognition of twice as many taxa as the interpretation of aerial photos and taking half the time, but did not allow a complete localisation. None of these methods alone seems sufficient to carry out a complete survey. A mixture of different techniques, which may vary according to the available resources and the goal to be achieved, seems to be the best compromise. To further test the capabilities of the survey using the interpretation of GSV panoramas every 1.5 km along the roads, we proceeded to study the alien plants along 3500 km of the road network on the island of Sicily. This survey identified only 10% of the known species for the region, but allowed us to trace the distribution of invasive species whose distribution is currently poorly recorded.