UAS imagery protocols to map vegetation are transferable between dryland sites across an elevational gradient

This dataset consists of UAS flight images from three sites along an elevation and precipitation gradient within Reynolds Creek Experimental Watershed collected between June 4 and July 9, 2019. The lowest elevation site ('wbs1', 1,425 m) was vegetated by shrub steppe dominated Wyoming big sage (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis). Vegetation at the middle elevation site ('los1', 1,680 m) was shrub steppe dominated by low sage (Artemisia arbuscula). Shrub steppe at the highest elevation site ('mbs1', 2,110 m) was dominated by mountain big sage (Artemisia tridentata ssp. vaseyana) and Utah snowberry (Symphoricarpos oreophilus utahensis). A MicaSense RedEdge 3 sensor mounted on a DJI Matrice 600 Pro UAS platform was used to collect multispectral imagery of each site. The drone was flown by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 107 certified remote pilot between June 5 and July 9 2019. All flights were completed within two hours of solar noon. The RedEdge is a broadband multispectral sensor: blue (475nm), green (560nm), red (668nm), red edge (717nm), and near-infrared (840nm). The RedEdge sensor was radiometrically calibrated using a reflectance panel before and after each flight. A DJI Phantom 4 with the stock FC330 Red Green Blue (sRGB) camera was flown over each site to collect imagery at a finer spatial resolution to assist with training and test data for vegetation type classification.
Resources in this dataset:
Folder containing imagery (.zip) and location (.csv) data. The .zip files contain unprocessed visual (RGB) imagery in .jpg format acquired with a 12-MP DJI (Sony) FC330 camera and unprocessed multispectral, 5-band imagery in .tif format acquired with a MicaSense RedEdge-M sensor. Camera settings and EXIF information are embedded in the imagery files. The .csv files contain ground control point (GCP) labels and coordinate information recorded with an RTK instrument for GCP target (black/white cross) locations at the relevant study areas.