Efficient detection and monitoring procedures of invasive plant species are required. It is of crucial importance to deal with such plants in aquatic ecosystems, since they can affect biodiversity and, ultimately, ecosystem function and services. In this study, it is intended to detect water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) using multispectral data with different spatial resolutions. For this purpose, high-resolution data (<0.1 m) acquired from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and coarse-resolution data (10 m) from Sentinel-2 MSI were used. Three areas with a high incidence of water hyacinth located in the Lower Mondego region (Portugal) were surveyed. Different classifiers were used to perform a pixel-based detection of this invasive species in both datasets. From the different classifiers used, the results were achieved by the random forest classifiers stand-out (overall accuracy (OA): 0.94). On the other hand, support vector machine performed worst (OA: 0.87), followed by Gaussian naive Bayes (OA: 0.88), k-nearest neighbours (OA: 0.90), and artificial neural networks (OA: 0.91). The higher spatial resolution from UAV-based data enabled us to detect small amounts of water hyacinth, which could not be detected in Sentinel-2 data. However, and despite the coarser resolution, satellite data analysis enabled us to identify water hyacinth coverage, compared well with a UAV-based survey. Combining both datasets and even considering the different resolutions, it was possible to observe the temporal and spatial evolution of water hyacinth. This approach proved to be an effective way to assess the effects of the mitigation/control measures taken in the study areas. Thus, this approach can be applied to detect invasive species in aquatic environments and to monitor their changes over time.

Due to strong improvements and developments achieved in the last decade, it is clear that applied research using remote sensing technology such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can provide a flexible, efficient, non-destructive, and non-invasive means of acquiring geoscientific data, especially aerial imagery. Simultaneously, there has been an exponential increase in the development of sensors and instruments that can be installed in UAV platforms. By combining the aforementioned factors, unmanned aerial system (UAS) setups composed of UAVs, sensors, and ground control stations, have been increasingly used for remote sensing applications, with growing potential and abilities. This paper’s overall goal is to identify advantages and challenges related to the use of UAVs for aerial imagery acquisition in forestry and coastal environments for preservation/prevention contexts. Moreover, the importance of monitoring these environments over time will be demonstrated. To achieve these goals, two case studies using UASs were conducted. The first focuses on phytosanitary problem detection and monitoring of chestnut tree health (Padrela region, Valpaços, Portugal). The acquired high-resolution imagery allowed for the identification of tree canopy cover decline by means of multi-temporal analysis. The second case study enabled the rigorous and non-evasive registry process of topographic changes that occurred in the sandspit of Cabedelo (Douro estuary, Porto, Portugal) in different time periods. The obtained results allow us to conclude that the UAS constitutes a low-cost, rigorous, and fairly autonomous form of remote sensing technology, capable of covering large geographical areas and acquiring high precision data to aid decision support systems in forestry preservation and coastal monitoring applications. Its swift evolution makes it a potential big player in remote sensing technologies today and in the near future.

Monitoring invasive plant species is a crucial task to assess their presence in affected ecosystems. However, it is a laborious and complex task as it requires vast surface areas, with difficult access, to be surveyed. Remotely sensed data can be a great contribution to such operations, especially for clearly visible and predominant species. In the scope of this study, water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) was monitored in the Lower Mondego region (Portugal). For this purpose, Sentinel-2 satellite data were explored enabling us to follow spatial patterns in three water channels from 2018 to 2021. By applying a straightforward and effective methodology, it was possible to estimate areas that could contain water hyacinth and to obtain the total surface area occupied by this invasive species. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was used for this purpose. It was verified that the occupation of this invasive species over the study area exponentially increases from May to October. However, this increase was not verified in 2021, which could be a consequence of the adopted mitigation measures. To provide the results of this study, the methodology was applied through a semi-automatic geographic information system (GIS) application. This tool enables researchers and ecologists to apply the same approach in monitoring water hyacinth or any other invasive plant species in similar or different contexts. This methodology proved to be more effective than machine learning approaches when applied to multispectral data acquired with an unmanned aerial vehicle. In fact, a global accuracy greater than 97% was achieved using the NDVI-based approach, versus 93% when using the machine learning approach (above 93%).

Pastoral systems based on grazing itineraries are very common along the Mediterranean region and provide an opportunity to manage the fuel load and reduce fire risk in the ecosystem. Daily and seasonal movements of flocks bring on different grazing pressure (GP) (sheep ha⁻¹) over the landscape. This study presents an approach to model sheep GP under a Mediterranean pastoral system in the Northeast of Portugal. The GP in a given location depends on the distance from the stable to the parish border, the distance to the stable, the heads of livestock and their preference for land use and cover (LUC). The geoprocessing we applied in this study integrated several spatial databases: the latest official Portuguese vector mapping of land use and cover (COS2015) and administrative boundaries (CAOP2018), the livestock stables location, and Sentinel-2 Multispectral Images. During the geoprocessing, the stocking density (SD) (sheep ha⁻¹) were calculated and spatially interpolated. Homogeneous LUC units (permanent crops; annual crops; forest; shrubland; grassland; water bodies) were obtained by Random Forest supervised classification algorithm (kappa = 89.3%; global accuracy = 91.2%). Boolean overlapping of the LUC classes obtained by the supervised classifier with the mask created from COS2015 provides the potentially grazed LUC classes. Integrating LUC preferences with SD allows calculating and mapping the GP. The most common GP class is 0–0.25 sheep ha⁻¹. Seeing the GP per LUC class, a value of 1.84 sheep ha⁻¹ was found in permanent crops, 1.73 in annual crops, and 1.25 in grassland, 0.88 in grazed forests and 0.84 in shrublands. The GP modelling and mapping could assist in the implementation of herding programmes aimed at reducing fire hazards at a parish or at a regional scale.