Complex Model Based on Uav Technology for Investigating Pastoral Space

Abstract

Data from the specialized literature show that in the last decade there has been a rapid development in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for obtaining spatial information from the pastoral environment. The idea of investigating grassland surfaces with the help of drones was based on the following practical considerations: the size and complexity of pastoral space and the need for data acquisition in hard-to-reach areas and in a short time. In this context, the purpose of the research is to integrate UAV technology and GIS applications into pratological research, the results obtained having both practical and methodological character. For the efficient research of the pastoral space with UAV equipment, a working model was developed, complex from a technical point of view, consisting of several stages: identifying the areas of interest, planning and setting the flight parameters, "photographing" the area, downloading and image processing, and then processing the results in the GIS environment. From each stage, geospatial products can be extracted, and the final products can be used in various ways, both in the pastoral space and in other segments of the geographical environment. Following the application of the working algorithm results the orthophotoplan and the point clouds, from which can be extracted topo-cadastral information (related to the "physical" surface of grasslands), pratological information (related to vegetation and mode of use) or useful information in territorial planning (risk phenomena, relief aspects), with high precision and spatial location. Compared with the classical research methods, the use of the working model based on geomatic technologies, has the effect of reducing the working time and the number of operators, the possibility of tracking time and space of the investigated territory, but also the formation of graphic and descriptive databases that they can be used in other subsequent projects.

Assessment of the Impact of Population Reduction on Grasslands with a New “Tool”: A Case Study on the “Mountainous Banat” Area of Romania

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Monitoring the vegetation coverage of the grasslands in the Poiana Ruscă Mountains using different remote sensing indices

“…The continuous expansion and improvement of remote sensing and aerial photogrammetry (Wulder et al, 2016;Xiao et al, 2019;Simon et al, 2020) makes it possible to observe and monitor processes and phenomena on the land surface, an essential condition for understanding and the analysis of their spatio-temporal dynamics (Crowley and Cardille, 2020; Mahecha et al, 2020;Bobric et al, 2023). These analyzes can be done by applying spectral indices on multispectral satellite images, indices formed on the basis of combinations of spectral bands, from different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the most common field of application of spectral indices is the terrestrial biosphere, with a special focus on observation, analysis and monitoring of vegetation (Hatfield et al, 2019;Montero et al, 2023).…”

Techniques for identification, mapping and analysis of grasslands. Case study: Arad county

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