Monitoring of crop biomass using true colour aerial photographs taken from a remote controlled hexacopter

Jannoura, Ramia; Brinkmann, Katja; Uteau, Daniel; Bruns, Christian; Joergensen, Rainer Georg

doi:10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2014.11.007

Cited by 133 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Visible light VIs, such as the NGRDI, are often used to characterize vegetation if NIR information is lacking (Pérez et al 2000; Meyer and Neto 2008; Raymond et al 2005). Due to their low costs and low weight, consumer-grade true colour (RGB) digital cameras are particularly suitable for assessing green vegetation using UAS-based imaging systems (Torres-Sánchez et al 2014; Saberioon et al 2014; Hoffmann et al 2016a; Goodbody et al 2017; Jannoura et al 2015). Rasmussen et al (2016) evaluated the reliability of four VIs (ExG, NGRDI, NDVI, ENDVI) derived from consumer-grade RGB as well as CIR (colour-infrared) cameras mounted on UAS.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of evapotranspiration of temperate grassland based on high-resolution thermal and visible range imagery from unmanned aerial systems

Brenner

Zeeman

Bernhardt

et al. 2018

International Journal of Remote Sensing

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Spatially distributed high-resolution data of land surface temperature (LST) and evapotranspiration (ET) are important information for crop water management and other applications in the agricultural sector. While satellite data can provide LST high-resolution data of 100 m, the current development of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and affordable low-weight thermal cameras allows LST and subsequent ET to be derived at resolutions down to centimetre scale.In this study, UAS-based images in the thermal infrared (TIR) and visible spectral range were collected over a managed temperate grassland in July 2016 at the Terrestrial Environmental Observatories Networks TERENO preAlpine observatory site at Fendt, Germany. The UAS set-up included a lightweight thermal camera (Optris Pi Lightweight) and a regular digital camera (Sony α 6000) that allowed for the acquisition of thermal and optical images with a ground resolution of 5 cm and 1 cm, respectively. Three TIR-based ET models of different complexity were applied and the resulting ET estimates were compared to the Eddy covariance (EC) observations of turbulent energy fluxes and also to the evaporative fraction. While the Deriving Atmosphere Turbulent Transport Useful To Dummies Using Temperature (DATTUTDUT) model and the Triangle Method belong to the group of simpler contextual models, the Two-Source Energy Balance (TSEB) model incorporates a more physically based formulation of the surface energy balance. In addition to the comparison of UAS-based estimates of latent heat fluxes to EC observations, the effect of the spatial resolution of the model imagery input on the modelled results was analysed by running the models with imagery from the native resolution of the acquired images to resolutions that were aggregated up to 30 m.The results show that both contextual models are sensitive to the input image resolution and that the agreement with the EC observations improves with increasing image resolution. The TSEB model assumes that LST pixels represent a mixed signal of the soil and canopy components, thus an image resolution coarse enough to ensure this assumption should be chosen. However, with the exception of the native image resolution of 5 cm, we found no effect of image resolution on the spatially weighted mean TSEB estimates.For the studied grassland, the comparison of model estimates with EC observations indicates that all three models are able to reproduce observed energy fluxes with comparable accuracy with mean absolute errors of ET between 20 and 40 W m−2. The TSEB model showed larger deviations from the reference observations under cloudy conditions with rapid fluctuations of LST within the 30 min averaging period for EC. The two contextual models yielded similar results for most of the flights. The good performance of the DATTUTDUT model, which had the lowest input requirements of the three models, is especially promising in view of the application of UAS for routine near-real-time ET monitoring.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of evapotranspiration of temperate grassland based on high-resolution thermal and visible range imagery from unmanned aerial systems

Brenner

Zeeman

Bernhardt

et al. 2018

International Journal of Remote Sensing

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“…The large availability of UAS equipped with visible (VIS) commercial cameras (see Table A1) has been the main driver for research that has explored the potential use of low-cost sensors for vegetation monitoring [43][44][45][46]. Among the many available visible spectral indices, the Normalized Green-Red Difference Index (NGRDI) and Excessive Green (ExG) indices have been used to provide acceptable or high levels of accuracy in vegetation mapping studies.…”

Section: Sensorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems for Environmental Monitoring

et al. 2018

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Environmental monitoring plays a central role in diagnosing climate and management impacts on natural and agricultural systems; enhancing the understanding of hydrological processes; optimizing the allocation and distribution of water resources; and assessing, forecasting, and even preventing natural disasters. Nowadays, most monitoring and data collection systems are based upon a combination of ground-based measurements, manned airborne sensors, and satellite observations. These data are utilized in describing both small-and large-scale processes, but have spatiotemporal constraints inherent to each respective collection system. Bridging the unique spatial and temporal divides that limit current monitoring platforms is key to improving our understanding of environmental systems. In this context, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) have considerable potential to radically improve environmental monitoring. UAS-mounted sensors offer an extraordinary opportunity to bridge the existing gap between field observations and traditional air-and space-borne remote sensing, by providing high spatial detail over relatively large areas in a cost-effective way and an entirely new capacity for enhanced temporal retrieval. As well as showcasing recent advances in the field, there is also a need to identify and understand the potential limitations of UAS technology. For these platforms to reach their monitoring potential, a wide spectrum of unresolved issues and application-specific challenges require focused community attention. Indeed, to leverage the full potential of UAS-based approaches, sensing technologies, measurement protocols, postprocessing techniques, retrieval algorithms, and evaluation techniques need to be harmonized. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the existing research and applications of UAS in natural and agricultural ecosystem monitoring in order to identify future directions, applications, developments, and challenges.

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“…The results of Ribeiro et al [33] (geometric products), Bendig et al [34,35] (plant height, biomass) and Jannoura et al [36] (LAI) indicated that digital cameras with visible and infrared spectra are efficient and flexible for monitoring agricultural crop parameters. Berni et al [37] suggested that thermal infrared cameras mounted on UAVs show potential for environmental and agricultural applications (mapping canopy conductance and crop water stress).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of Winter Wheat Above-Ground Biomass Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Based Snapshot Hyperspectral Sensor and Crop Height Improved Models

et al. 2017

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Correct estimation of above-ground biomass (AGB) is necessary for accurate crop growth monitoring and yield prediction. We estimated AGB based on images obtained with a snapshot hyperspectral sensor (UHD 185 firefly, Cubert GmbH, Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany) mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The UHD 185 images were used to calculate the crop height and hyperspectral reflectance of winter wheat canopies from hyperspectral and panchromatic images. We constructed several single-parameter models for AGB estimation based on spectral parameters, such as specific bands, spectral indices (e.g., Ratio Vegetation Index (RVI), NDVI, Greenness Index (GI) and Wide Dynamic Range VI (WDRVI)) and crop height and several models combined with spectral parameters and crop height. Comparison with experimental results indicated that incorporating crop height into the models improved the accuracy of AGB estimations (the average AGB is 6.45 t/ha). The estimation accuracy of single-parameter models was low (crop height only: R 2 = 0.50, RMSE = 1.62 t/ha, MAE = 1.24 t/ha; R 670 only: R 2 = 0.54, RMSE = 1.55 t/ha, MAE = 1.23 t/ha; NDVI only: R 2 = 0.37, RMSE = 1.81 t/ha, MAE = 1.47 t/ha; partial least squares regression R 2 = 0.53, RMSE = 1.69, MAE = 1.20), but accuracy increased when crop height and spectral parameters were combined (partial least squares regression modeling: R 2 = 0.78, RMSE = 1.08 t/ha, MAE = 0.83 t/ha; verification: R 2 = 0.74, RMSE = 1.20 t/ha, MAE = 0.96 t/ha). Our results suggest that crop height determined from the new UAV-based snapshot hyperspectral sensor can improve AGB estimation and is advantageous for mapping applications. This new method can be used to guide agricultural management.

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Monitoring of crop biomass using true colour aerial photographs taken from a remote controlled hexacopter

Cited by 133 publications

References 35 publications

Estimation of evapotranspiration of temperate grassland based on high-resolution thermal and visible range imagery from unmanned aerial systems

Estimation of evapotranspiration of temperate grassland based on high-resolution thermal and visible range imagery from unmanned aerial systems

On the Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems for Environmental Monitoring

Estimation of Winter Wheat Above-Ground Biomass Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Based Snapshot Hyperspectral Sensor and Crop Height Improved Models

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