Use of unmanned aerial vehicles for monitoring coastal and inland waters

摘要: Growth in human population and land based pollution sources have led to increase in eutrophication of coastal and inland waters [1], making the frequent water quality monitoring critical for the success of water resource management programs. European Union recognized the importance of monitoring in water management and, both, Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) prescribe a need of frequent monitoring to assess the ecological status of water bodies. The lack of proper monitoring and its high costs presents some of the major difficulties for successful environmental management of coastal and inland waters in order to reduce anthropogenic environmental pressures and foster sustainable development. Remote sensing techniques present a possibility to overcome financial and logistical constraints of classical terrestrial monitoring, at the same time providing unprecedented quantity of data on water quality. Especially, the recent increase in the development and use of small and simply operated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has made the UAV based remote sensing a very promising and accessible solution for environmental monitoring.