Advancing Watershed Studies Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in a Changing Climate

Dear Colleagues,

Drought increasingly threatens the sustainability of water resources in many regions worldwide. The United States (US), for example, has experienced 17 drought years from 1980 to 2018 that have exceeded USD 171 billion in damages and costs, equivalent to an average annual loss of approximately USD 8.5 billion. Given current trends in climate variability, population growth, and urbanization, economic losses from drought are likely to continue and increase. One very effective way to mitigate some of these costs and potential catastrophic losses in irrigated agriculture may be to use the fast-moving technology, such as unmanned aerial systems, wireless sensor networks, and artificial intelligence, to improve our understanding of the factors that drive the onset and development of drought conditions at local and regional scales, enabling planners and end users to more effectively manage and meter out their limited water resources.

This Special Issue will allow authors to share practical experience, technology, and skillsets from academia, industry, government entities, and private sectors to improve valued-added agriculture productivity, particularly through remote sensing tools, including but not limited to: unmanned aerial systems (UASs), wireless sensor networks, robotics, and artificial intelligence, with the following objectives:

1. To improve drought forecast, monitoring, and outlook using big data;
2. To increase productivity in irrigated agriculture using remote sensing technologies (e.g., satellite, unmanned aerial system, unmanned ground system);
3. To promote pest management strategies associated with drought;
4. To advance irrigation technology with innovative solutions;
5. To demonstrate wireless sensor network integrated with Internet of Thing (IoT) and/or artificial intelligence (AI) for drought management;
6. To explore drought management alternatives working with stakeholders in a changing climate;
7. To discuss future digital farming practice in a changing global environment possibly induced by COVID-19.

Dr. Jae Hyeon Ryu
Guest Editor

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• drought
• precision agriculture
• remote sensing
• unmanned aerial system
• unmanned ground system
• wireless sensing network
• irrigated agriculture