Use of High-Resolution Multispectral UAVs to Calculate Projected Ground Area in Corylus avellana L. Tree Orchard

Abstract

In the last decade, research on Corylus avellana has focused on improving field techniques and hazelnut quality; however, climatic change and sustainability goals call for new agronomic management strategies. Precision management technologies could help improve resource use efficiency and increase grower income, but research on remote sensing systems and especially on drone devices is still limited. Therefore, the hazelnut is still linked to production techniques far from the so-called Agriculture 4.0. Unmanned aerial vehicles platforms are becoming increasingly available to satisfy the demand for rapid real-time monitoring for orchard management at spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions, addressing the analysis of geometric traits such as canopy volume and area and vegetation indices. The objective of this study is to define a rapid procedure to calculate geometric parameters of the canopy, such as canopy area and height, by methods using NDVI and CHM values derived from UAV images. This procedure was tested on the young Corylus avellana tree to manage a hazelnut orchard in the early years of cultivation. The study area is a hazelnut orchard (6.68 ha), located in Bernalda, Italy. The survey was conducted in a six-year-old irrigated hazelnut orchard of Tonda di Giffoni and Nocchione varieties using multispectral UAV. We determined the Projected Ground Area and, on the Corylus avellana canopy trough, the vigor index NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and the CHM (Canopy Height Model), which were used to define the canopy and to calculate the tree crown area. The projection of the canopy area to the ground measured with NDVI values > 0.30 and NDVI values > 0.35 and compared with CHM measurements showed a statistically significant linear regression, R2 = 0.69 and R2 = 0.70, respectively. The ultra-high-resolution imagery collected with the UAV system helped identify and define each tree crown individually from the background (bare soil and grass cover). Future developments are the construction of reliable relationships between the vigor index NDVI and the Leaf Area Index (LAI), as well as the evaluation of their spatial-temporal evolution.