Mapping forest tree species in high resolution UAV-based RGB-imagery by means of convolutional neural networks

Abstract The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in vegetation remote sensing allows a time-flexible and cost-effective acquisition of very high-resolution imagery. Still, current methods for the mapping of forest tree species do not exploit the respective, rich spatial information. Here, we assessed the potential of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and very high-resolution RGB imagery from UAVs for the mapping of tree species in temperate forests. We used multicopter UAVs to obtain very high-resolution (