64 WINES&VINES December 2017
GRAPEGROWING WINE EAST
The drone is equipped with
two interchangeable cameras.
One camera is an off-the-shelf
red/green/blue (RGB) camera,
which records photos and videos
in the same format as a smart-
phone or point-and-shoot camera.
The second camera has been
modified to replace the blue light
normally captured by a typical
camera with near infrared (NIR)
light. This is the camera used to
create normalized difference veg-
etation index (NDVI) maps that
measure plant vigor.
Visual inspection
and vigor mapping
with two-dimensional maps
The RGB camera was flown first and
produced the map shown in the
photo on page 62. Viewed from
above, large variability zones can be
clearly identified in both the vine-
yard floor health and vine size. We
plan to use this information to direct
an intensive soil sampling investiga-
tion, starting by isolating soil sam-
ples in the large low-vigor feature in
the lower portion of the block.
The flight was repeated with the
NDVI camera and produced the
three-zone vigor map shown at left
on page 63. The zoned NDVI map
helps identify areas of variability
less visible with standard photog-
raphy. Using this map, we can iden-
tify several additional smaller
locations to sample in isolation.
At this point, you may be won-
dering what the USDA Natural
Resources Conservation Service
Soils Survey says about this block.
Maybe it straddles multiple soil
types? That is easy to check, be-
cause the aerial drone data auto-
m a t i c a l l y i n c l u d e s G P S
information. A quick import into
ArcGIS and an overlay of the soils
survey data produced the image at
right on page 63. According to this
map, there is only one soil type in
the mix. If the block did straddle
soil types, the spatial relationships
between vigor and soil maps
would be easy to reconcile.
Interactive 3-D inspection
One of the useful features of aerial
mapping is the ability to create an
interactive 3-D model of the vine-
yard. When mapping, the drone
flies a programmed flight path over
the vineyard and takes many over-
lapping pictures, which are later
stitched into a large and detailed
map. Overlapping images capture
each point in the vineyard from
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Overlapping images were used to create interactive 3-D models that allow
the vineyard to be viewed from different perspectives.
