Intercomparison of UAV, Aircraft and Satellite Remote Sensing Platforms for Precision Viticulture

Abstract

Precision Viticulture is experiencing substantial growth thanks to the availability of improved and cost-effective instruments and methodologies for data acquisition and analysis, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), that demonstrated to compete with traditional acquisition platforms, such as satellite and aircraft, due to low operational costs, high operational flexibility and high spatial resolution of imagery. In order to optimize the use of these technologies for precision viticulture, their technical, scientific and economic performances need to be assessed. The aim of this work is to compare NDVI surveys performed with UAV, aircraft and satellite, to assess the capability of each platform to represent the intra-vineyard vegetation spatial variability. NDVI images of two Italian vineyards were acquired simultaneously from different multi-spectral sensors onboard the OPEN ACCESS Remote Sens. 2015, 7 2972 three platforms, and a spatial statistical framework was used to assess their degree of similarity. Moreover, the pros and cons of each technique were also assessed performing a cost analysis as a function of the scale of application. Results indicate that the different platforms provide comparable results in vineyards characterized by coarse vegetation gradients and large vegetation clusters. On the contrary, in more heterogeneous vineyards, low-resolution images fail in representing part of the intra-vineyard variability. The cost analysis showed that the adoption of UAV platform is advantageous for small areas and that a break-even point exists above five hectares; above such threshold, airborne and then satellite have lower imagery cost.

Detection and Segmentation of Vine Canopy in Ultra-High Spatial Resolution RGB Imagery Obtained from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV): A Case Study in a Commercial Vineyard

“…The key strengths of UAV are the high spatial ground resolution and a reduced planning time, which allows for highly flexible and timely vineyard monitoring [15,[38][39][40]. This study presents results using different classifications methods to detect and segment the vine canopy in ultra-high-resolution RGB imagery obtained from UAV.…”

Estimation of Energy Balance Components over a Drip-Irrigated Olive Orchard Using Thermal and Multispectral Cameras Placed on a Helicopter-Based Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

“…Berni et al [28,29] suggested that the two critical limitations for using current satellite sensors in real-time crop management are the lack of imagery having optimum spatial and spectral resolution and unfavorable revisit times for many crop stress-detection applications. In addition, Matese et al [30] indicated that low-resolution images of traditional acquisition platforms fail to represent much of the intra-vineyard variability that is a key for application of the site-specific management (precision viticulture) of heterogeneous vineyards.…”

On the Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems for Environmental Monitoring

“…Matese et al [7] provided an intercomparison of the acquisition and processing costs of three different platforms (UAS, Aircraft, and Satellite). Their cost model parametrization allows the derivation of the relative cost for the different configurations, showing that UAS is the most cost-effective solution for fields of an extent equal to or less than 20 ha.…”