The company UtilTech teaches a course on satellite images and drones in the agroforestry field, of maximum interest to farmers and all professionals in the agricultural and forestry environment on February 28, 29 and March 1, 2020 in Ciudad real. The course is called Specialist in remote sensing (satellite + Drones) in the agroforestry field.
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With this course you will acquire the necessary knowledge to obtain, analyze and process data obtained with Satellite and Drones.
You will also learn about the characteristics of remote monitoring in vegetation, its usefulness in Agriculture and Forestry, as well as how to plan flights to obtain it correctly.
Another objective of this course is focused on specialization for the use of remote sensing and photogrammetry through satellite images and obtained by drones in the agricultural and forestry world. The objective is to support the farmer in crop surveillance, pest prevention and other applications.
- Remote sensing : remote detection of information that occurs in crops or forest plantations and is carried out by means of satellites and artificial probes.
- Photogrammetry : the technique that indicates shapes, dimensions and position of a land or plantation by means of photographs.
Importance of the management of satellite images and drones in agriculture
The development of the Sentinel family of satellites started in 2014, within the framework of the Copernicus program led by the European Commission, has made it possible to make available to public administrations and the agricultural sector, in an accessible and reliable way, new technologies such as satellite imagery and advanced remote sensing.
In addition, progress has been made in the adaptation and use, at affordable costs by the sector, of technologies such as global navigation, drones, sensors and robots, among others.
All this facilitated and accelerated by the growing digital connectivity, which allows everything to be connected with everything, and by the opportunities that open up for innovation]. Data from the "Agenda for the Digitization of the Agrifood and Forestry sector and the Rural Environment of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food".
We have already dedicated an article to the satellite images , because Plantae makes use of them in the installation of sensors .
Lastly, the handling of satellite images by farmers, foresters and managers in general of agroforestry farms, you need a preparation course to understand its application in crop care.
The objectives of the training of the course would be:
- First analyze the satellite images.
- Second to process the data that they offer us.
- Third, learn to handle remote controlled air vehicles (RPAS), and the most current and demanded software (computer tools) in terms of flight mapping and photogrammetry such as PIX4D, UGCS and Qgis.
Applications of satellite images and drones to the agroforestry environment
New technologies have come to agriculture to stay and farmers have to upgrade to them.
The objectives that are achieved are many and very important:
- Evaluate the ground conditions.
- Control water deficient areas.
- Growth rate of the crop, flowering or start of production.
- Pest prevention.
- Fumigation of inaccessible parts.
- Weed control in large plantations.
- Observe if it is time to harvest the harvest.
- Higher economic returns.
Program of the Specialist course in Remote Sensing of Satellite Images and Drones in the Agroforestry field
The course is led by:
- Agricultural and Forestry Engineers and Technicians.
- Middle and higher grade students in the agrarian branch.
- Teachers of the agrarian branch.
- Farmers and managers of agroforestry farms.
This course aims to be a theoretical review of the concepts of remote sensing, Photogrammetry, precision agriculture and its most direct application in the agroforestry field.
Theoretical sessions will be held in the classroom and then applied through practical sessions.
In addition, several modules will be given in pdf so that you can deepen, at home after the course.
In the practical part we will delve into:
• Free download of NASA satellite images and the European space program and their treatment in Qgis.
• Photogrammetric flight planning with drones in UGCS.
• Image processing in Pix4D. Point cloud acquisition, orthophoto , digital models and vegetation indices.
FEBRUARY 28:
- 16h. Welcome and Presentation of the course.
- 16: 15h-17: 15h General concepts of Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry.
- 17: 15h-18: 15h Data acquisition.
- 18: 15h-18: 30h Break.
- 18: 30h-19: 30h Remote monitoring in vegetation.
- 19: 30h-21h RPAS utilities in agriculture and forestry.
FEBRUARY 29:
- 9h-9: 45h: First steps with Qgis.
- 9: 45h-10: 30h: Acquisition of satellite image.
- 10: 30-11: 15: Correction of satellite images.
- 11: 15h-11: 451h Break.
- 11: 45h-12: 30h: Visualization of images in Qgis. Enhancements
- 12: 30h-14h: Operations between bands. Vegetation indices.
- 13h-14h Flight planning with Ugcs
- 16h-18: 30h Flight operations in agricultural and forestry fields
- 18: 30h-19h Break and return to the classroom.
- 9h-21h Drone flight planning and analysis of data obtained in the field.
The first of March:
- 9h-10: 30h P6: Workflow in PIX4D. (drone data): Orthophoto, MDS, MDT and Vegetation Indices.
- 10: 30h-11h Break
- 11h-12: 30h P7: Estimation of forest variables with high resolution images (drones).
- 12: 30h-14h P8: Obtaining a map of slopes and orientation.
With the data obtained with the RPAS in different crops and forest areas, the software PIX4D, UGCS (Flight Planner) and Qgis (geographic information system) will be studied.
This program may undergo some modification due to being conditioned to the weather of the weekend in which the course takes place.
No drone flying experience is required.
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