Wild Animal Damage Mapping From Drones

*Map of the agricultural field damaged by wild animals (boars) in Luxembourg, before and after the damaged area classification. In pink, the damaged areas. ®RSS-Hydro*

Description

Wild animal (boars, in this case) damage mapping is performed using RSS-Drones‘ geospatial technologies and drones capabilities. The final map and calculation of the damaged areas represent a valuable product for both farmers and hunters, the first of which need to deal with potentially major crop loss and the latter who are in charge of the local wild animals control, to assess the respective responsibilities.

Images of the agricultural field are taken from the drone during pre-planned automatic flights performed by our talented drone pilots (compliant with EASA regulations). As part of the post-processing procedures, the photogrammetry software Agisoft Metashape is used to create a georeferenced orthomosaic (basically a map) of the field. Then, we proceed with the identification of the damaged areas, coloured in pink in the map above. This classification is performed based on an automated classification method on the orthomosaic created from the drone data. Additional manual corrections are performed on areas that are hard to classify automatically. The damaged area (in pink) is only calculated in parts of the field that are visibly damaged, to avoid overestimations. Surfaces without vegetation are not included in the calculation.