Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

The Geomatics lab uses drones and other off-the-ground sensors to collaborate on interdisciplinary research between geospatial mapping, phycology, plant pathology, and turfgrass science, including monitoring of aquatic plants, invasive shrubs and trees, and measuring the efficacy of chemical and biological control.

One study, for example, investigated the use of unmanned aerial systems mapping for monitoring the efficacy of invasive aquatic vegetation (AV) management on a floating‐leaved AV species, Nymphoides cristata (crested floating heart, (CFH)), comparing RGB with multispectral sensors for detection at different elevations above ground.

Selected publications:

• Kaddoura, Y. O., B. Wilkinson, T. Merrick, G. Barnes, K. Duffy, E. Broadbent, A. Abd-Elrahman, M. Binford and A. D. Richardson (2022). Georeferencing oblique PhenoCam imagery. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 190: 301-321
• Benjamin, A. R., Abd-Elrahman, A., Gettys, L. A., Hochmair, H. H., and Thayer, K. (2021). Monitoring the Efficacy of Crested Floatingheart (Nymphoides cristata) Management with Object-based Image Analysis of UAS Imagery. Remote Sensing, 13(4), 830