A Review of Unoccupied Aerial Vehicle Use in Wetland Applications: Emerging Opportunities in Approach, Technology, and Data

Iryna Dronova,Chippie Kislik,Maggi Kelly,Zack Dinh

doi:10.3390/drones5020045

Abstract

Recent developments in technology and data processing for Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have revolutionized the scope of ecosystem monitoring, providing novel pathways to fill the critical gap between limited-scope field surveys and limited-customization satellite and piloted aerial platforms. These advances are especially ground-breaking for supporting management, restoration, and conservation of landscapes with limited field access and vulnerable ecological systems, particularly wetlands. This study presents a scoping review of the current status and emerging opportunities in wetland UAV applications, with particular emphasis on ecosystem management goals and remaining research, technology, and data needs to even better support these goals in the future. Using 122 case studies from 29 countries, we discuss which wetland monitoring and management objectives are most served by this rapidly developing technology, and what workflows were employed to analyze these data. This review showcases many ways in which UAVs may help reduce or replace logistically demanding field surveys and can help improve the efficiency of UAV-based workflows to support longer-term monitoring in the face of wetland environmental challenges and management constraints. We also highlight several emerging trends in applications, technology, and data and offer insights into future needs.

Highlights

Unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs) have emerged in the global remote sensing community as small, flying robots that can access dangerous or remote regions, capture highresolution imagery, and facilitate environmental monitoring and research ranging from broad applications in agricultural management [1] to specialized marine mammal behavioral ecology [2]
We focus on the following specific questions: 1) What the current state of UAV applications in wetlands is and what types of management goals and needs they respond to; 2) What emerging opportunities in approach, technology, and data are evident and what frontiers these opportunities open for wetland science, restoration, conservation and management; and 3) What barriers and wetland-specific constraints limit the scope of UAV use and what considerations and future research could strengthen the ability of these tools to support wetland monitoring and management in the face of field challenges
The customizable timing of UAV flights allows for users to avoid cloud issues, which are prevalent in wetland environments [156], and track wetland vegetation phenology, which is critical at early stages after disturbances and restoration

Summary

Introduction

Unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs) have emerged in the global remote sensing community as small, flying robots that can access dangerous or remote regions, capture highresolution imagery, and facilitate environmental monitoring and research ranging from broad applications in agricultural management [1] to specialized marine mammal behavioral ecology [2]. UAVs are beneficial to environmental monitoring because they bridge the constraints in complex, dynamic, limited-access environments that historically have been challenging to survey [3]. They reduce the amount of time and labor expended on surveying and sampling on the ground [4,5,6,7], providing time for targeted managerial activities that may otherwise be overlooked, such as restoration assessments [8,9,10,11]. As hydrological regimes continue to shift with climate change [19], UAVs will prove to be critical tools in the monitoring and management of freshwater and marine ecosystems around the world

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