Assessing the Orange Tree Crown Volumes Using Google Maps as a Low‐Cost Photogrammetric Alternative

The accurate assessment of tree crowns is important for agriculture, for example, to adjust spraying rates, to adjust irrigation rates or even to estimate biomass. Among the available methodologies, there are the traditional methods that estimate with a three-dimensional approximation figure, the HD...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Marín-Buzón, Carmen, Pérez Romero, Antonio Miguel, Tucci Álvarez, Fabio, Manzano Agugliaro, Francisco
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/152383
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/152383
https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10060893
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Google maps
photogrammetry
HDS
TLS
LiDAR
tree crown
UAV
orange tree
Descrição
Resumo:The accurate assessment of tree crowns is important for agriculture, for example, to adjust spraying rates, to adjust irrigation rates or even to estimate biomass. Among the available methodologies, there are the traditional methods that estimate with a three-dimensional approximation figure, the HDS (High Definition Survey), or TLS (Terrestrial Laser Scanning) based on LiDAR technology, the aerial photogrammetry that has re-emerged with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), as they are considered low cost. There are situations where either the cost or location does not allow for modern methods and prices such as HDS or the use of UAVs. This study proposes, as an alternative methodology, the evaluation of images extracted from Google Maps (GM) for the calculation of tree crown volume. For this purpose, measurements were taken on orange trees in the south of Spain using the four methods mentioned above to evaluate the suitability, accuracy, and limitations of GM. Using the HDS method as a reference, the photogrammetric method with UAV images has shown an average error of 10%, GM has obtained approximately 50%, while the traditional methods, in our case considering ellipsoids, have obtained 100% error. Therefore, the results with GM are encouraging and open new perspectives for the estimation of tree crown volumes at low cost compared to HDS, and without geographical flight restrictions like those of UAVs