Use of Unmanned Aerial System to assess wildlife (Sus  scrofa) damage to crops (Zea mays)

remote sensing; Sus scrofa; wildboar; photogrammetry; Unmanned aerial system; wildlife damage; télédétection; sanglier; photogrammétrie; drone; dégâts faune

Abstract :

[en] Damage caused by ungulates to agricultural areas are difficult to evaluate because the real extent of the damage remains usually poorly described and potentially arising conflicts. Recent advances in unmanned aerial system (UAS) provide new versatile mapping and quantification possibilities in a wide range of applications. We used crop fields (Zea mays) damaged by wild boar (Sus scrofa) and compared the extent of the damage by means of three methods: i) traditional ground-based assessment ii) UAS orthoimages with operator delineation and iii) UAS Crop Height Model with automatic delineation based on height threshold. We showed for the first time that UAS could be applied for assessing damage of ungulates to agriculture. The two methods using UAS imagery provide coherent and satisfactory results and trended to underestimate the damage area when compared to in-use ground-based field expertise. However we suggest that performance of UAS should further be tested in variable conditions in order to assess the broad application of this tool. Our study describes the potential of UAS as a tool for estimating more accurately the damage area and subsequently the compensation costs for wildlife damage. The proposed approach can come in support of local and regional policies for the definitions of compensation for farmers.

Disciplines :

Environmental sciences & ecology

Author, co-author :

Michez, Adrien ; Université de Liège > Ingénierie des biosystèmes (Biose) > Gestion des ressources forestières et des milieux naturels

Morelle, Kevin

Lehaire, François

Widar, Jérôme

Authelet, Manon ; Université de Liège > Ingénierie des biosystèmes (Biose) > Laboratoire de Foresterie des régions trop. et subtropicales

Vermeulen, Cédric ; Université de Liège > Ingénierie des biosystèmes (Biose) > Laboratoire de Foresterie des régions trop. et subtropicales

Lejeune, Philippe ; Université de Liège > Ingénierie des biosystèmes (Biose) > Gestion des ressources forestières et des milieux naturels

Language :

English

Title :

Use of Unmanned Aerial System to assess wildlife (Sus scrofa) damage to crops (Zea mays)

Alternative titles :

[en] Utilisation des drones pour l'évaluation des dégâts de la faune (sanglier - Sus scrofa) à l'agriculture (maïs - Zea mays)

Publication date :

11 October 2016

Journal title :

Journal of Unmanned Vehicle Systems

eISSN :

2291-3467

Publisher :

NRC Research Press, Ottawa, Canada

Volume :

4(4)

Pages :

266-275

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Available on ORBi :

since 28 November 2016

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