Analysis of Agricultural Technologies

Abstract

The present study illustrates an operational approach estimating individual and aggregate vineyards’ canopy volume through three years Tree-Row-Volume (TRV) measurements and remotely sensed imagery acquired with an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Red-Green-Blue (RGB) digital camera, processed with MATLAB scripts, and validated through ArcGIS tools. The TRV methodology was applied by sampling a different number of rows and plants per row each year to evaluate the reliability and accuracy of this technique compared with a remote approach. The empirical results indicate that the estimated tree-row-volumes derived from a UAS Canopy Height Model (CHM) are up to 50% different from those measured on the field using the routinary TRV technique in 2019, with a much higher difference in the 2016. These findings outline the importance of data integration among techniques that mix proximal and remote sensing in routine vineyards’ agronomic practices, helping to reduce management costs and increase the environmental sustainability of traditional cultivation systems.