Mapping soil properties for unmanned aerial system–based environmental monitoring

Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) are increasingly employed to capture detailed features of an environment more efficiently and effectively than other remote sensing equipment. In this chapter the importance of mapping soil physical, chemical, and other key properties will be discussed jointly with the presentation of both traditional and recent proxy tools commonly adopted to predict the soil hydraulic characteristics. These characteristics summarize the hydrological behavior of the soil and are key input parameters of models that help interpret hydrological processes and are employed to respond to several environmental problems, such as the simulation of water flow and solute transport in the critical zone, the assessment of drought and vegetation stress, identifying the extent of soil contamination, evaluating soil erosion severity and potential landslide occurrence as well as postfire damages.