UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS AND SATELLITE TECHNOLOGIES FOR TOPSOIL MAPPING IN PRECISION AGRICULTURE

Abstract. The use of satellite/UAS technologies in Precision Agriculture (PA) is increasing significantly and the continuous need of such kind of technologies is generating a great economic impact. This study carried out results by using Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Very Hight Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery for the estimation of topsoil variability. The purpose of this contribution concerns the data analysis over two Production Units by evaluating radiometric response along the surface (e.g., spectral index). Our results concern the integration of UAS and satellite, improving the estimation accuracy of soil homogeneous areas variability, over which to manage agricultural practices. The remote sensing data covered by bare soil were isolated from the vegetative matrix along the study area. Thus, by using a statistical approach through the correlation between remote imagery and specific indices, it could be possible to determine variability in each pedological context, determining the zoning over land plots. According to this, in absence of high-resolution proximal soil sensing instrumentation, remote sensing data analysis can provide preliminary information suitable to establish a weighted topsoil/subsoil sampling campaign.