Use of unmanned aerial vehicle to calculate soil loss

Abstract

ABSTRACT Satellite remote sensing systems are widely used in environmental studies for providing regional scale analyses with high temporal resolution. On the other hand, when local small scale spatial studies based on very high resolution data at specific moments are involved, unmanned aerial vehicles have been alternatively adopted. The present case study aimed to carry out the morphometric analysis and quantify the soil loss in two sinkholes located in Oxisol on carbonate rocks of the Paranoá Group, in an agricultural area of Niquelândia, Goiás state, Brazil, using unmanned aerial vehicle, in two periods. From the analyzed satellite images, it was estimated that the emergence period of the sinkholes was between December 2018 and April 2019. Based on the aerial survey carried out, 35.53 m2 of eroded area and 236.89 metric tons of soil loss were observed for the sinkhole 1, as well 299.96 m2 of area and 663.47 metric tons of loss in the first period and 961.66 m2 of area and 4,241.68 metric tons of loss after six months for the sinkhole 2.