This book compiles a set of original and innovative papers included in the Special Issue on UAVs for vegetation monitoring, which proves the wide scope of UAVs in very diverse vegetation applications, both in agricultural and forestry scenarios, ranging from the characterization of relevant vegetation features to the detection of plant or crop stressors. New methods and techniques are developed and applied to diverse vegetation scenarios to meet the main challenge of sustainability.

This annotated bibliography documents literature addressing the design and implementation of vegetation monitoring. It provides resources managers, ecologists, and scientists access to the great volume of literature addressing many aspects of vegetation monitoring: planning and objective setting, choosing vegetation attributes to measure, sampling design, sampling methods, statistical and graphical analysis, and communication of results. Over half of the 1400 references have been annotated. Keywords pertaining to the type of monitoring or method are included with each bibliographic entry. Keyword index.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) have already become an affordable and cost-efficient tool to quickly map a targeted area for many emerging applications in the arena of ecological monitoring and biodiversity conservation. Managers, owners, companies, and scientists are using professional drones equipped with high-resolution visible, multispectral, or thermal cameras to assess the state of ecosystems, the effect of disturbances, or the dynamics and changes within biological communities inter alia. We are now at a tipping point on the use of drones for these type of applications over natural areas. UAV missions are increasing but most of them are testing applicability. It is time now to move to frequent revisiting missions, aiding in the retrieval of important biophysical parameters in ecosystems or mapping species distributions. This Special Issue shows UAV applications contributing to a better understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem status, threats, changes, and trends. It documents the enhancement of knowledge in ecological integrity parameters mapping, long-term ecological monitoring based on drones, mapping of alien species spread and distribution, upscaling ecological variables from drone to satellite images: methods and approaches, rapid risk and disturbance assessment using drones, mapping albedo with UAVs, wildlife tracking, bird colony and chimpanzee nest mapping, habitat mapping and monitoring, and a review on drones for conservation in protected areas.

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) are a rapidly evolving technology with an expanding array of diverse applications. In response to the continuing evolution of this technology, this book discusses unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and similar systems, platforms and sensors, as well as exploring some of their environmental applications. It explains how they can be used for mapping, monitoring, and modeling a wide variety of different environmental aspects, and at the same time addresses some of the current constraints placed on realizing the potential use of the technology such as s flight duration and distance, safety, and the invasion of privacy etc. Features of the book: Provides necessary theoretical foundations for pertinent subject matter areas Introduces the role and value of UAVs for geographical data acquisition, and the ways to acquire and process the data Provides a synthesis of ongoing research and a focus on the use of technology for small-scale image and spatial data acquisition in an environmental context Written by experts of the technology who bring together UAS tools and resources for the environmental specialist Unmanned Aerial Remote Sensing: UAS for Environmental Applications is an excellent resource for any practitioner utilizing remote sensing and other geospatial technologies for environmental applications, such as conservation, research, and planning. Students and academics in information science, environment and natural resources, geosciences, and geography, will likewise find this comprehensive book a useful and informative resource.

This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "UAV Sensors for Environmental Monitoring" that was published in Sensors

This book aims to further build capacity in the conservation community to use drones for conservation and inspire others to adapt emerging technologies for conservation.