Vegetation Cover Estimation in Semi-Arid Shrublands after Prescribed Burning: Field-Ground and Drone Image Comparison

The use of drones for vegetation monitoring allows the acquisition of large amounts of high spatial resolution data in a simple and fast way. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of vegetation cover estimation by drones in Mediterranean semi-arid shrublands (Sierra de Filabres; Almería; southern...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Drones (Basel) 2022-11, Vol.6 (11), p.370
Main Authors: Pérez-Luque, Antonio J., Ramos-Font, María Eugenia, Tognetti Barbieri, Mauro J., Tarragona Pérez, Carlos, Calvo Renta, Guillermo, Robles Cruz, Ana Belén
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arid regions
Aridity
Drone aircraft
Drones
Environmental aspects
Estimates
Grasses
Image acquisition
Livestock
Prescribed burning
Prescribed fire
prescribed-burns
pyric-herbivorism
Remote sensing
Sampling
Semi arid environments
Sensors
Shrublands
Sierra de Filabres
Software
southern Spain
Spatial resolution
Steppes
UAV
Vegetation
vegetation monitoring
Vegetation zones
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Summary:The use of drones for vegetation monitoring allows the acquisition of large amounts of high spatial resolution data in a simple and fast way. In this study, we evaluated the accuracy of vegetation cover estimation by drones in Mediterranean semi-arid shrublands (Sierra de Filabres; Almería; southern Spain) after prescribed burns (2 years). We compared drone-based vegetation cover estimates with those based on traditional vegetation sampling in ninety-six 1 m2 plots. We explored how this accuracy varies in different types of coverage (low-, moderate- and high-cover shrublands, and high-cover alfa grass steppe); as well as with diversity, plant richness, and topographic slope. The coverage estimated using a drone was strongly correlated with that obtained by vegetation sampling (R2 = 0.81). This estimate varied between cover classes, with the error rate being higher in low-cover shrublands, and lower in high-cover alfa grass steppe (normalized RMSE 33% vs. 9%). Diversity and slope did not affect the accuracy of the cover estimates, while errors were larger in plots with greater richness. These results suggest that in semi-arid environments, the drone might underestimate vegetation cover in low-cover shrublands.
ISSN:2504-446X
2504-446X
DOI:10.3390/drones6110370