Geographical Information Systems (GIS) provide researchers with the tools to access, analyse, and manage large spatial and temporal datasets combining wildlife occurrences/movements with ecological and anthropogenic data, helping to identity and understand spatial patterns. GIS are a valuable tool in conservation, helping researchers to understand species distributions, monitor land use and landcover change, spatially map biodiversity, and predict the risks from climate change.

Human population growth, changes in land use, infrastructure development and habitat fragmentation, have subsequently resulted in bringing people into increased contact with wildlife. Human-wildlife conflicts threaten people, their livelihoods, and wildlife populations, and their occurrence has become more frequent, with predictions expected to increase and exacerbated by climate change. Experts have listed conflicts resulting from negative interactions between people and wildlife to be one of the greatest current threats to biodiversity worldwide. GIS provide an essential tool to spatially represent the geographic distribution of wildlife and people, identify locations/populations at risk and examine potential drivers of conflict. Analysing geospatial and remotely sensed data in conjunction with occurrence data enables predictions to be made identifying future risk under various scenarios, facilitating a science-led approach to mitigation.

This Research Topic aims to collect selected contributions on all aspects of mapping and/modelling human-wildlife-interactions across a broad range of taxa in terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems. The emphasis of this special edition is on the GIS and remote sensing applications employed at both landscape and global scales that serve to predict regions, species, and communities at risk with the potential to guide conservation management.

We are interested in submissions of different kinds of manuscripts ranging from full research papers to data reports, perspectives and policy briefs (see article types) that explore for example:

- Mapping human-wildlife-conflict hotspots
- Spatial and temporal patterns of human wildlife conflicts
- Using spatial analysis to identify drivers of depredation and interactions
- Interdisciplinary approaches to mapping human-wildlife-conflicts
- Mapping land-use change and patterns of conflict
- Mapping human-wildlife interactions in urban environments
- Mapping habitat selection and disease transmission between wildlife and livestock
- Examining future conflict risk under climate change scenarios via spatial and temporal modelling

This Research Topic has been organized following the International Conference on Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence, held on 30th March-1st April 2023 at Oxford University and co-organized by the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group, the Global Environment Facility-funded and World Bank-led Global Wildlife Program and the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University's Department of Biology.

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Frontiers in Conservation Science

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