A Pilot Study to Estimate Forage Mass from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in a Semi-Arid Rangeland

Autor: Michael T. Page, Karelys N. Labrador-Rodriguez, Chase Walther, Brent C. Hedquist, Alexandria M. DiMaggio, David B. Wester, J. Alfonso Ortega-S., Sandra Rideout-Hanzak, Humberto L. Perotto-Baldivieso, Jose de la Luz Martinez
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Remote Sensing
Volume 12
Issue 15
Pages: 2431
Remote Sensing, Vol 12, Iss 2431, p 2431 (2020)
ISSN: 2072-4292
Popis: The application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the monitoring and management of rangelands has exponentially increased in recent years due to the miniaturization of sensors, ability to capture imagery with high spatial resolution, lower altitude platforms, and the ease of flying UAVs in remote environments. The aim of this research was to develop a method to estimate forage mass in rangelands using high-resolution imagery derived from the UAV using a South Texas pasture as a pilot site. The specific objectives of this research were to (1) evaluate the feasibility of quantifying forage mass in semi-arid rangelands using a double sampling technique with high-resolution imagery and (2) to compare the effect of altitude on forage mass estimation. Orthoimagery and digital surface models (DSM) with a resolution 2 = 0.65) and 50-m AGL (r2 = 0.63). Furthermore, the use of UAVs would allow one to collect a large number of samples using a non-destructive method to estimate available forage for grazing animals.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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