Evaluation of various unmanned aerial vehicle sensors for monitoring an ecological restoration plantation of <i>Pinus greggii</i>

Abstract

In the field of ecological restoration, a proper evaluation of forest plantations is of great importance to determine whether the project’s goals have been met. The objective of this study was to monitor early restoration efforts in degraded sites using high-resolution images captured with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). A supervised classification was carried out on two orthomosaics, one constructed with red, green, and blue (RGB) images and the other with multispectral images. The data obtained from each image were statistically compared. The RGB image was better when comparing live trees against stressed and dead trees. The use of UAVs is a viable option for the early assessment of forest plantations.