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Drones in Hydrological Research and Management

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A special issue of Drones (ISSN 2504-446X). This special issue belongs to the section "Drones in Ecology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 9464

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Dalia Calneryte

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Guest Editor

Department of Applied Informatics, Faculty of Informatics, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania
Interests: image analysis; time series analysis, and clustering; optimization; machine learning

Dr. Robert Szczepanek

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Guest Editor

Institute of Geological Sciences, Jagiellonian University, 30-387 Krakow, Poland
Interests: earth sciences; data science; GIS; hydroinformatics; machine learning; deep learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Jarosław Chormański

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Department of Remote Sensing and Environmental Assessment, Institute of Environmental Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: remote sensing for hydrology and hydrological modeling; remote sensing for urban hydrology and urban ecosystem services; hydro-ecological processes monitoring and modeling; wetlands applications; aquatic remote sensing; water stress detection
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The use of drones in hydrological research and management is transforming the way of monitoring water bodies and managing water resources. Drones equipped with a range of sensors, from cameras to LiDAR and multispectral imaging systems have emerged as powerful tools for collecting high-resolution spatial and temporal data, enabling researchers and stakeholders to gain deeper insights into complex water systems with greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness compared to conventional methods, such as manual data collection.

The potential of drones extends to a wide range of hydrological applications, such as flood monitoring and disaster response, tracking changes in the water body ecosystem, calibrate and validate hydrological models, analyze sediment transport, and many other applications. Drones enable to collect data efficiently by the means of time and human-power even in the regions that are hard or dangerous to reach. Fast and easy data collection provides an opportunity to collect data frequently, detect and identify changes, and therefore make timely and sustainable decisions for water resource, risk, or disaster management.

This Special Issue aims at collecting emerging technologies, innovative methodologies, best practices, and applications of using Drones in Hydrological Research and Management.

We welcome submissions which provide the community with the most recent advancements on all aspects of Drones in Hydrological Research and Management, including but not limited to:

Drones for disaster (flood, drought, pollution, etc.) forecast and management
Drones for water quality monitoring
Drones for bathymetry mapping
Drone applications for reservoir and dam inspection
Drones for sediment transport analysis
Drones for ecosystem condition assessment
Drones for calibration and validation of hydrological model
Any use of drones related to hydrological research and management.

Dr. Dalia Calneryte
Dr. Robert Szczepanek
Prof. Dr. Jarosław Chormański
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

hydrological research
disaster management
image analysis
machine learning
sustainable development
water quality

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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24 pages, 8415 KB

Open AccessArticle

UAV-Based River Velocity Estimation Using Optical Flow and FEM-Supported Multiframe RAFT Extension

by Andrius Kriščiūnas, Vytautas Akstinas, Dalia Čalnerytė, Diana Meilutytė-Lukauskienė, Karolina Gurjazkaitė, Tautvydas Fyleris and Rimantas Barauskas

Drones 2026, 10(3), 221; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones10030221 - 21 Mar 2026

Viewed by 420

Abstract

Quantifying river surface flow velocity is essential for hydrodynamic modelling, flood forecasting, and water resource management. Traditional in situ methods provide accurate point measurements but are costly and limited in spatial coverage. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) offer a flexible, non-contact alternative for high-resolution monitoring. Optical flow is a tracer-independent technique for deriving velocity fields from RGB video, making it well suited to UAV-based surveys. However, its operational use is hindered by the limited availability of annotated datasets and by instability under low-texture or noisy conditions. This study combines a Finite element method (FEM)-based physical flow model with UAV video to generate reference datasets and introduces a modified Recurrent All-Pairs Field Transforms (RAFT) architecture based on multiframe sequences. A Gated Recurrent Unit fusion module (Fuse-GRU) is incorporated prior to correlation computation, improving robustness to illumination changes and surface homogeneity while maintaining computational efficiency. The proposed model delivers stable, physically consistent velocity estimates across multiple rivers and flow conditions. Accuracy improves with higher spatial resolution and moderate temporal spacing. Compared to field measurements, the average angular difference ranged from 8 to 15°. The high error values were mainly caused by inaccuracies in the physical model and by complex river features. These findings confirm that multiframe optical flow can reproduce realistic river flow patterns with accuracy comparable to physically-based simulations, thereby supporting UAV-based hydrometric monitoring and model validation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drones in Hydrological Research and Management)

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16 pages, 1170 KB

Open AccessArticle

Development and Validation of an Amphibious Drone-Based In-Situ SPE System for Environmental Water Monitoring

by Osamu Kiguchi, Kouki Saitoh, Makoto Yoshida, Takero Kikuchi, Shunsuke Watanabe, Hirokazu Madokoro, Takeshi Nagayoshi, Makoto Inoue, Nobumitsu Kurisawa and Hitoshi Osawa

Drones 2025, 9(9), 649; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9090649 - 15 Sep 2025

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1359

Abstract

To improve the efficiency of aquatic environmental monitoring, an in-situ solid-phase extraction (SPE) system using amphibious (waterproof) drones was developed and validated using recovery testing with samples containing known concentrations of systemic insecticides in the laboratory and using real samples from natural water bodies. The system used a water-resistant linear actuator for continuous aspiration at 1–10 mL min⁻¹ through a pre-washed hydrophilic–lipophilic balanced SPE cartridge. The system functioned properly during field sampling using vacuum-mode filtration to avoid overpressure, overcurrent, and contamination through repeated filtration. The recovery tests using 10 ng L⁻¹ of each target analyte in ultra-pure water samples produced satisfactory recovery results of 89–96% (relative standard deviation < 10%). In the real sampling of water bodies, the developed system was able to detect target analytes of 0.9–180 ng L⁻¹. The results are comparable to those obtained using in-situ manual SPE from boat sampling, irrespective of differences in the two aspiration systems. These findings suggest that the application of the developed drone-assisted in situ SPE system can improve the efficiency of real-sample monitoring of natural water bodies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drones in Hydrological Research and Management)

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Review

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17 pages, 2705 KB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceReview

Review of Hybrid Aerial Underwater Vehicle: Potential Applications in the Field of Underwater Marine Optics

by Hongyu Qi, Shuibo Hu, Jiasheng Zhang and Guofeng Wu

Drones 2025, 9(10), 667; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9100667 - 23 Sep 2025

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4312 | Correction

Abstract

Hybrid Aerial Underwater Vehicle (HAUV) is a new type of unmanned system that can operate both in air and water, and complete underwater and air operations tasks by carrying corresponding sensors. Owing to this dual-medium operational capability, HAUVs hold significant promise for coordinated air–sea surveillance and monitoring efforts. Optical methods enable high-resolution sampling across both spatial and temporal scales, offering enhanced contextual information for the interpretation of discrete observational data. In order to evaluate the feasibility of ocean optical profiling systems based on HAUVs, this paper reviews the design features of current HAUV models and summarizes advanced techniques that support their cross-medium mobility. Subsequently, we summarized the types of commercial optical instruments commonly used for underwater observation and compared the field deployment methods. By analyzing the underwater motion performance of HAUVs and the requirements for optical observation platforms, we believe that multi-rotor HAUVs can provide new observation methods for future underwater optical acquisition due to their smooth entry and exit characteristics and the ability to maintain a controlled orientation during underwater operation. Finally, the paper explores prospective applications and outlines key obstacles to be overcome in the advancement of amphibious platforms for ocean optical profiling. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drones in Hydrological Research and Management)

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18 pages, 5186 KB

Open AccessReview

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Technology for Glaciology Research in the Third Pole

by Chuanxi Zhao, Shengyu Kang, Yihan Fan, Yongjie Wang, Zhen He, Zhaoqi Tan, Yifei Gao, Tianzhao Zhang, Yifei He and Yu Fan

Drones 2025, 9(4), 254; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones9040254 - 27 Mar 2025

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2121

Abstract

The Third Pole region contains vast glaciers, and changes in these glaciers profoundly affect the lives and development of billions of people. Therefore, accurate glacier monitoring in this region is of great scientific and practical significance. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) provide high-resolution observation capabilities and flexible deployment options, effectively overcoming certain limitations associated with traditional in situ and satellite remote sensing observations. Thus, UAV technology is increasingly gaining traction and application in the glaciology community. This review systematically analyzed studies involving UAV technology in Third Pole glaciology research and determined that relevant studies have been performed for a decade (2014–2024). Notably, after 2020, the number of relevant manuscripts has increased significantly. Research activities are biased toward the use of rotary-wing UAVs (63%) and ground control point (GCP) correction methods (67%). Additionally, there is strong emphasis on analyzing glacier surface elevation, surface velocity, and landform evolution. These activities are primarily concentrated in the Himalayan region, with relatively less research being conducted in the western and central areas. UAV technology has significantly contributed to glaciology research in the Third Pole region and holds great potential to enhance the monitoring capabilities in future studies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drones in Hydrological Research and Management)

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