Application of UAVs and Remote Sensing in Agricultural Water Resources Management

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on the research and application of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and satellite remote sensing in agricultural water resource management. Multi-temporal remote sensing technology has emerged as one of the primary technical means for monitoring agricultural ecological environments, crop growth conditions and crop pest situations, and it is also an inevitable technical means for achieving precision agriculture and intelligent agriculture. This Special Issue focuses on the applications of multi-platform and multi-sensor remote sensing, machine learning and deep learning algorithms, as well as data fusion and assimilation methods in soil moisture and salinity monitoring, crop growth and crop drought monitoring. These efforts aim to provide the scientific basis for field water management in irrigation districts and the efficient utilization of water resources. This Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following key areas of application:

• Multi-platform remote sensing: Satellites, UAVs and ground-based sensors are employed for monitoring soil moisture, soil salinity and crop water deficits.
• Optical remote sensing: Various sensors such as multispectral, hyperspectral and thermal infrared sensors are used to monitor soil moisture and salinity information and crop physiological parameters.
• Microwave remote sensing: Microwave remote sensing technologies, including radar, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and global navigation satellite system-interferometry (GNSS-IR), are utilized for monitoring soil moisture and crop water deficits.
• Advanced remote sensing techniques: Research on machine learning, deep learning, data fusion, data assimilation and scale transformation methods will be conducted to improve the accuracy and applicability of agricultural water information monitoring, facilitating guidance for agricultural drought monitoring and precision irrigation.
• Monitoring of irrigation district drought conditions and crop growth conditions: Integration of multi-platform and multi-sensor remote sensing systems will be implemented to monitor large-scale irrigation district droughts or changes in crop growth.

Dr. Yifei Yao
Prof. Dr. Zhitao Zhang
Guest Editors

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• soil moisture content
• crop water deficit
• soil salinization
• water–salt stress
• farmland drought monitoring
• crop growth monitoring
• satellite remote sensing
• UAV remote sensing
• 3S technology
• optical remote sensing
• microwave remote sensing
• GNSS-IR
• precision agriculture
• digital agriculture
• data fusion
• data assimilation
• machine learning