Aerial surveys of fields and rice paddies: orthophotos, vigour maps and thermal maps to locate gaps, waterlogging, lodging and damage, with areas measured in hectares.
Conditions across a plot vary with levelling, water availability and crop emergence, and differences inside the field cannot be seen from its edge. A georeferenced aerial survey covers the whole area and allows critical zones to be outlined and measured: gaps, waterlogging, lodging after a storm. In rice paddies the top-down view makes basin levelling, standing water and dry patches readable.
Reference figures
Grid flight with a minimum overlap of 60% side and 65% forward, delivered as a single georeferenced image. Areas and distances are measured directly on the file.
Crop rows shot top-down: at this scale areas are measured on the orthophoto.
At a ground resolution of one centimetre per pixel the row reads plant by plant. Lodged areas and standing water are outlined as polygons and quantified in hectares.
Standing water inside a paddy basin, not visible from the road.
The thermal camera detects temperature differences down to 0.05 °C. Wet surfaces and a transpiring crop read cooler than the surrounding dry soil, and the difference appears before any change in colour.
A strip of dry soil along the edge of the crop.
Same route, same altitude and same time of day: two surveys weeks apart return measurable differences, useful for documenting how damage develops or the outcome of a treatment.
A cereal field during harvest.
NDVI and NDRE are computed from near-infrared reflectance, which requires a dedicated multispectral sensor. The resulting map divides the plot into vigour zones and forms the basis for agronomic decisions.
Three adjoining parcels with different crop vigour.
Tanks from 40 to 100 litres and a working width of up to 13 metres: product is applied in the zones and at the rates set by the map. For plant protection products the legal limits given in the technical notes apply.
Filling the tank at the field edge.
Example vigour map
Photograph and index on the same pixel: rows stand out from the soil and the most vigorous zones are immediately recognisable. The panel also states the limit of the data: the index is computed from visible bands, while NDVI requires the near-infrared band.
Example screen: the values shown do not come from a survey.
Drone spraying of plant protection products. Since 18 December 2025 Italian law has allowed drone spraying on agricultural land by derogation, experimentally for three years, subject to notification to the regional plant health service and a sworn agronomic report. The implementing decree that must define crops, permitted products and technical methods has not yet been issued. On the aviation side, a simplified procedure has been available since August 2026 that also allows large agricultural drones to be authorised. Maps, indices and the application of non-pesticide products can therefore be carried out today; for treatments we work within the rules in force, which we set out at the quotation stage.
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