Trends in Remote Sensing Technologies in Olive Cultivation

Abstract

Various Remote Sensing (RS) technologies and platforms have been widely used in olive cultivation studies over the last 16 years. These technologies and platforms have been applied throughout the olive cultivation cycle, providing significant insights into olive growth and productivity. The goal of this review was to determine the importance of RS technologies and platforms in specific agronomic focus areas in order to determine the equipment and platform requirements in olive cultivation studies. For this reason, frequency and correspondence studies were carried out. Unmanned aerial vehicles, multispectral sensors, and vigour assessment found to be important in olive cultivation studies. Additionally, each agronomic focus area in an olive cultivation study presents different needs in equipment, proximity of sensing, and coverage area, indicating that this must be taken into account during field experiments with RS. Further technological improvements will permit the use of other RS technologies and platforms during future studies. Finally, future studies are expected to focus more on RS data processing as well as on the use of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles in swarms for data collection and performance of actions.