Remote Sensing Applications in Almond Orchards: A Comprehensive Systematic Review of Current Insights, Research Gaps, and Future Prospects
Source abstract
Abstract
Almond cultivation is of great socio-economic importance worldwide. With the demand for almonds steadily increasing due to their nutritional value and versatility, optimizing the management of almond orchards becomes crucial to promote sustainable agriculture and ensure food security. The present systematic literature review, conducted according to the PRISMA protocol, is devoted to the applications of remote sensing technologies in almond orchards, a relatively new field of research. The study includes 82 articles published between 2010 and 2023 and provides insights into the predominant remote sensing applications, geographical distribution, and platforms and sensors used. The analysis shows that water management has a pivotal focus regarding the remote sensing application of almond crops, with 34 studies dedicated to this subject. This is followed by image classification, which was covered in 14 studies. Other applications studied include tree segmentation and parameter extraction, health monitoring and disease detection, and other types of applications. Geographically, the United States of America (USA), Australia and Spain, the top 3 world almond producers, are also the countries with the most contributions, spanning all the applications covered in the review. Other studies come from Portugal, Iran, Ecuador, Israel, Turkey, Romania, Greece, and Egypt. The USA and Spain lead water management studies, accounting for 23% and 13% of the total, respectively. As far as remote sensing platforms are concerned, satellites are the most widespread, accounting for 46% of the studies analyzed. Unmanned aerial vehicles follow as the second most used platform with 32% of studies, while manned aerial vehicle platforms are the least common with 22%. This up-to-date snapshot of remote sensing applications in almond orchards provides valuable insights for researchers and practitioners, identifying knowledge gaps that may guide future studies and contribute to the sustainability and optimization of almond crop management.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Remote Sensing in Agriculture · Remote Sensing and LiDAR Applications · Nuts composition and effects
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences (CITAB), University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Institute for Innovation, Capacity Building and Sustainability of Agri-Food Production, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Engineering Department, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD), 5000-801 Vila Real, Portugal
Centre for Robotics in Industry and Intelligent Systems (CRIIS), Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC-TEC), 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Centro de Investigação de Montanha (CIMO), Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, 5300-253 Bragança, Portugal
Funding
FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology · Doctoral Programme “Agricultural Production Chains—from fork to farm” · European Social Funds · Regional Operational Programme Norte 2020 · CITAB research unit · Inov4Agro · CIMO
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