Feature Papers for Drones in Agriculture and Forestry Section: 2nd Edition

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 November 2024 | Viewed by 1426

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Interests: smart agriculture; UAS; remote sensing; plant phenotype and disease-pest monitoring; crop yield prediction; variable spraying system; deep learning; imaging processing technology
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As the Section Editor-in-Chief, I am pleased to announce a Special Issue entitled “Feature Papers for Section Drones in Agriculture and Forestry 2nd Edition”. This Special Issue welcomes high-quality papers from the latest research and application results related to the use of drones in agriculture and forestry. Manuscripts can be theoretical, applied, or review articles. Interdisciplinary manuscripts are particularly welcome. For more scope information, you may check https://www.mdpi.com/journal/drones/sections/drones_in_agriculture_forestry.

Prof. Dr. Yangquan Chen
Prof. Dr. Fei Liu
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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

  • drones for agriculture:
  • personal remote sensing (PRS)
  • smart farming (crops, dairy, grazing, etc.)
  • site-specific management (SSM) of water, pesticide, fertilizer, etc.
  • integrated pest management (IPM)
  • phenotyping
  • yield prediction
  • environmental emissions (GHG, dust, etc.)
  • water-saving agriculture and irrigation management
  • applications (crop dusting, seeding, etc.)
  • soil moisture, soil health, soil variability, and carbon-negative practices
  • smart sensing and smart big data analytics
  • drones for forestry:
  • forest fire sensing and management
  • precision forestry and forestry management
  • forest mapping and biodiversity
  • mapping of canopy distribution and gaps
  • capturing forestry informatics (biomass, stockpile, fuel load, etc.)
  • three-dimensional mapping for carbon storage
  • tree planting and reforesting with drones
  • applications (surface fertilizer, growth stimulant, pesticides, etc.)
  • monitoring illegal logging and quarrying (forest security)
  • combating deforestation and desert forestation dynamics
  • smart sensing and smart big data analytics

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 2851 KiB  
Article
Granular Bait Applications for Management of Rangeland Grasshoppers Using a Remotely Piloted Aerial Application System
by Roberto Rodriguez, Derek A. Woller, Daniel E. Martin, K. Chris Reuter, Lonnie R. Black, Mohamed A. Latheef, Kiara M. López Colón and Mason Taylor
Drones 2024, 8(10), 535; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8100535 - 30 Sep 2024
Abstract
Rangeland grasshoppers are an endemic species that play an essential role in the rangeland ecosystem but can cause severe economic damage when populations reach outbreak levels. Remotely piloted aerial application systems (RPAASs) offer an alternative method to carry out aerial insecticide applications in [...] Read more.
Rangeland grasshoppers are an endemic species that play an essential role in the rangeland ecosystem but can cause severe economic damage when populations reach outbreak levels. Remotely piloted aerial application systems (RPAASs) offer an alternative method to carry out aerial insecticide applications in relatively small areas. The objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a granular bait, 2% Sevin (with the active ingredient carbaryl), applied by an RPAAS. The bait was applied on four replicated 4.05-hectare (10-acre) plots at a rate of 2.27 kg/ha (5 lbs/acre) with an RPAAS on a private ranch in New Mexico. Applications resulted in a normalized population reduction of 70.32% ± 16.54% standard error of the mean (SEM) of bait-susceptible species. Although some of the observed reduction in population may be attributed to aging, the net effect was most likely due to the ingestion of bait based on field observations of rapid mortality after ingestion and other factors, like past experience with carbaryl bait treatments on grasshoppers. Plots required at least two flights due to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) maximum takeoff weight requirement for small RPAASs. Combined, these results indicate that RPAASs can provide treatment capabilities in relatively small areas, i.e., population hotspots, preferably before outbreak levels are reached. Full article
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23 pages, 11793 KiB  
Article
Detecting Canopy Gaps in Uneven-Aged Mixed Forests through the Combined Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Imagery and Deep Learning
by Nyo Me Htun, Toshiaki Owari, Satoshi Tsuyuki and Takuya Hiroshima
Drones 2024, 8(9), 484; https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8090484 - 13 Sep 2024
Abstract
Canopy gaps and their associated processes play an important role in shaping forest structure and dynamics. Understanding the information about canopy gaps allows forest managers to assess the potential for regeneration and plan interventions to enhance regeneration success. Traditional field surveys for canopy [...] Read more.
Canopy gaps and their associated processes play an important role in shaping forest structure and dynamics. Understanding the information about canopy gaps allows forest managers to assess the potential for regeneration and plan interventions to enhance regeneration success. Traditional field surveys for canopy gaps are time consuming and often inaccurate. In this study, canopy gaps were detected using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery of two sub-compartments of an uneven-aged mixed forest in northern Japan. We compared the performance of U-Net and ResU-Net (U-Net combined with ResNet101) deep learning models using RGB, canopy height model (CHM), and fused RGB-CHM data from UAV imagery. Our results showed that the ResU-Net model, particularly when pre-trained on ImageNet (ResU-Net_2), achieved the highest F1-scores—0.77 in Sub-compartment 42B and 0.79 in Sub-compartment 16AB—outperforming the U-Net model (0.52 and 0.63) and the non-pre-trained ResU-Net model (ResU-Net_1) (0.70 and 0.72). ResU-Net_2 also achieved superior overall accuracy values of 0.96 and 0.97, outperforming previous methods that used UAV datasets with varying methodologies for canopy gap detection. These findings underscore the effectiveness of the ResU-Net_2 model in detecting canopy gaps in uneven-aged mixed forests. Furthermore, when these trained models were applied as transfer models to detect gaps specifically caused by selection harvesting using pre- and post-UAV imagery, they showed considerable potential, achieving moderate F1-scores of 0.54 and 0.56, even with a limited training dataset. Overall, our study demonstrates that combining UAV imagery with deep learning techniques, particularly pre-trained models, significantly improves canopy gap detection accuracy and provides valuable insights for forest management and future research. Full article
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