ALBERT

Description: Remote Sensing, Vol. 10, Pages 1094: Development and Performance Assessment of a Low-Cost UAV Laser Scanner System (LasUAV) Remote Sensing doi: 10.3390/rs10071094 Authors: Chiara Torresan Andrea Berton Federico Carotenuto Ugo Chiavetta Franco Miglietta Alessandro Zaldei Beniamino Gioli This study reports on a low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-borne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) system called LasUAV, from hardware selection and integration to the generation of three-dimensional point clouds, and an assessment of its performance. Measurement uncertainties were estimated in angular static, angular dynamic, and real flight conditions. The results of these experiments indicate that the point cloud elevation accuracy in the case of angular static acquisition was 3.8 cm, and increased to 3.9 cm in angular dynamic acquisition. In-flight data were acquired over a target surveyed by nine single passages in different flight directions and platform orientations. In this case, the uncertainty of elevation ranged between 5.1 cm and 9.8 cm for each single passage. The combined elevation uncertainty in the case of multiple passages (i.e., the combination of one to nine passages from the set of nine passages) ranged between 5 cm (one passage) and 16 cm (nine passages). The study demonstrates that the positioning device, i.e., the Global Navigation Satellite System real-time kinematic (GNSS RTK) receiver, is the sensor that mostly influences the system performance, followed by the attitude measurement device and the laser sensor. Consequently, strong efforts and greater economic investment should be devoted to GNSS RTK receivers in low-cost custom integrated systems.

Description: The present research is aimed at establishing how farmers can be encouraged to adopt irrigation water saving measures. By developing and implementing an extended version of the well-known Theory of Planned Behavior, we considered farmers’ propensity to adopt innovations and their water footprints. In a sample of 150 Italian farmers, we found that favorable attitudes towards water saving measures, and the orientations of environmental associations and public bodies favorably influence farmers’ intentions to adopt water saving measures. Farmers’ innovativeness and water footprints also exert a significant influence on their adoption intentions. The paper also discusses the contribution of these results to the previous literature and highlights practical implications for policy makers interested in promoting the adoption of irrigation water saving measures.