Title
Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for assessment of qualitative classification of Norway spruce in temperate forest stands
Abstract
The study investigates the potential of UAV-based remote sensing technique for monitoring of Norway spruce health condition in the affected forest areas. The objectives are: (1) to test the applicability of UAV visible an near-infrared (VNIR) and geometrical data based on Z values of point dense cloud (PDC) raster to separate forest species and dead trees in the study area; (2) to explore the relationship between UAV VNIR data and individual spruce health indicators from field sampling; and (3) to explore the possibility of the qualitative classification of spruce health indicators. Analysis based on NDVI and PDC raster was successfully applied for separation of spruce and silver fir, and for identification of dead tree category. Separation between common beech and fir was distinguished by the object-oriented image analysis. NDVI was able to identify the presence of key indicators of spruce health, such as mechanical damage on stems and stem resin exudation linked to honey fungus infestation, while stem damage by peeling was identified at the significance margin. The results contributed to improving separation of coniferous (spruce and fir) tree species based on VNIR and PDC raster UAV data, and newly demonstrated the potential of NDVI for qualitative classification of spruce trees. The proposed methodology can be applicable for monitoring of spruce health condition in the local forest sites.
Year
DOI
Venue
2018
10.1080/10095020.2017.1416994
GEO-SPATIAL INFORMATION SCIENCE
Keywords
Field
DocType
Remote sensing,species classification,spruce health indicator,Unmanned Aerial System (UAS)
VNIR,Raster graphics,Remote sensing,Beech,Normalized Difference Vegetation Index,Sampling (statistics),Temperate forest,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
21.0
SP1
1009-5020
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.39
1
Authors
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Olga V. Brovkina142.93
Emil Cienciala210.72
Peter Surový331.16
Přemysl Janata410.39