Automatic identification of agricultural terraces through object-oriented analysis of very high resolution DSMs and multispectral imagery obtained from an unmanned aerial vehicle.

Agricultural terraces are features that provide a number of ecosystem services. As a result, their maintenance is supported by measures established by the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In the framework of CAP implementation and monitoring, there is a current and future need for the deve...

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Published in:Journal of Environmental Management Vol. 134; pp. 117 - 127
Main Authors: Diaz-Varela, R.A., Zarco-Tejada, P.J., Angileri, V., Loudjani, P.
Format: Article
Published: Academic Press Inc. Feb2014
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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      dt: Feb2014
      vid: 134
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      pub: Academic Press Inc.
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        94366555
        10.1016/j.jenvman.2014.01.006
      ppf: 117
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        atl: Automatic identification of agricultural terraces through object-oriented analysis of very high resolution DSMs and multispectral imagery obtained from an unmanned aerial vehicle.
      aug:
        au:
          Diaz-Varela, R.A.
          Zarco-Tejada, P.J.
          Angileri, V.
          Loudjani, P.
        affil:
          Monitoring Agricultural Resources Unit, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, European Commission Joint Research Centre, Via E. Fermi 2749, 21027 Ispra, VA, Italy
          Department of Botany, GI-1934-TB, IBADER, University of Santiago de Compostela, Escola Politécnica Superior, Campus Universitario s/n, E-27002 Lugo, Spain
          Instituto de Agricultura Sostenible (IAS), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Córdoba, Spain
      su:
        Terraces (Agriculture)
        Research methodology
        Object-oriented methods (Computer science)
        Automatic identification
        Digital elevation models
        Drone aircraft
        Cameras
        Multispectral imaging
      sug:
        subj:
          Commercial and service industry machinery manufacturing
          Photographic and Photocopying Equipment Manufacturing
          Photographic equipment and supplies merchant wholesalers
          Photographic Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers
          Electronics Stores
          Camera and photographic supplies stores
          Terraces (Agriculture)
          Research methodology
          Object-oriented methods (Computer science)
          Automatic identification
          Digital elevation models
          Drone aircraft
          Cameras
          Multispectral imaging
      keyword:
        Agricultural terraces
        Common agricultural policy
        Digital surface model
        Object-oriented analysis
        Unmanned aerial vehicles
        Very high resolution imagery
        Agricultural terraces
        Common agricultural policy
        Digital surface model
        Object-oriented analysis
        Unmanned aerial vehicles
        Very high resolution imagery
      ab: Agricultural terraces are features that provide a number of ecosystem services. As a result, their maintenance is supported by measures established by the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). In the framework of CAP implementation and monitoring, there is a current and future need for the development of robust, repeatable and cost-effective methodologies for the automatic identification and monitoring of these features at farm scale. This is a complex task, particularly when terraces are associated to complex vegetation cover patterns, as happens with permanent crops (e.g. olive trees). In this study we present a novel methodology for automatic and cost-efficient identification of terraces using only imagery from commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) cameras on board unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Using state-of-the-art computer vision techniques, we generated orthoimagery and digital surface models (DSMs) at 11 cm spatial resolution with low user intervention. In a second stage, these data were used to identify terraces using a multi-scale object-oriented classification method. Results show the potential of this method even in highly complex agricultural areas, both regarding DSM reconstruction and image classification. The UAV-derived DSM had a root mean square error (RMSE) lower than 0.5 m when the height of the terraces was assessed against field GPS data. The subsequent automated terrace classification yielded an overall accuracy of 90% based exclusively on spectral and elevation data derived from the UAV imagery.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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