Use of unmanned aerial vehicles in agriculture and forestry studies

What is it about?

The UAVs represent one of the most important innovation technologies of the last years and, thanks to their flexibility of use, drones are becoming one of the emergent technological tools, with wide perspective, as well as increasing applicability in several scientific sectors. The multiplicity and diversification of uses have obviously influenced the forms, the technical characteristics and the typology of devices on board.

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Why is it important?

The use of innovative technologies in precision agriculture is the answer to the new millennium needs of private companies, institutional bodies, farming systems and environmental agencies. The opportunity of using high resolution, multispectral information for monitoring and understanding agricultural needs in terms of health status, crop categorization, transpiration and sunlight absorption rates, represents an important tool to ration the use of water, pesticides and fertilizers, to reduce costs, to optimize economic resources, as well as to increase the yield and overall quality of production. UAVs are currently being applied in wide field analysis of crop behavior such as rice, maize and wheat where they scan through the field, take images and report abnormality. Good precision information in agro-industry management may affect the production function of the farm with instantaneous yield monitoring (e.g. every week or every few meters), weed mapping, terrain analysis for hydrology, biomass volumetric calculation, topography and boundaries detection. In forestry, UAVs are capable of improving the efficiency of traditional acquisition and providing fine spatial scale data for sustainable resource management. Drones are mostly used for precision forestry inventory of tree crown dimensionality and location data, 3D mapping, diseases detection and management, forest stockpiles measuring, deforestation monitoring, forest fires management and prevention. In particular, UAVs have become necessary for fire prevention and post-fire monitoring, by identifying and constructing risk maps and supporting shutdown operations, as well as for the identification of spatial gaps, by estimating deforestation rates and post-harvest data. Furthermore, from an ecological point of view, drones can monitor habitats that are difficult to reach, control weed vegetation and invasive alien species.

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