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Dronescape: UAV Observations of TERN Ecosystem Surveillance Monitoring Plots, Data Collection

Dronescape Dataset Description

<br></br>

Dronescape is a research infrastructure initiative within TERN that integrates uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing techniques into Australia's terrestrial ecosystem monitoring framework. The project addresses critical spatio-temporal gaps between field-based measurements and satellite observations by deploying UAV systems carrying RGB, 10-band multispectral, and LiDAR sensors across TERN's surveillance monitoring plot network. Through standardized protocols and automated processing workflows, Dronescape generates analysis-ready products including orthomosaics, reflectance maps, vegetation indices, and 3D point clouds.<br></br>


As of 2025, the project has surveyed over 120 plots across multiple bioregions, with ongoing expansion to additional monitoring sites. Each plot covers approximately 90,000 m², contributing to a continuously growing dataset that enables long-term monitoring of Australia's diverse vegetation communities.<br></br>


Project Scope

<br></br>

<ul><li>Coverage: More than 120 plots across multiple bioregions (ongoing expansion) </li>

<li>Plot Size: Approximately 90,000 m² per monitoring site </li>

<li>Temporal Scale: 2–10 year monitoring cycles </li>

<li>Data Types: RGB, 10-band multispectral, and LiDAR</li></ul>

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2025-01-07
Date (Publication)
2025-06-27
Date (Revision)
2025-12-10
Edition
1.0

Publisher

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
+61 7 3365 9097

Author

School of Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences, University of Tasmania - Montes Herrera, Juan Carlos ()
Churchill Avenue, Hobart, Tasmania, 7005, Australia
Hobart
Tasmania
7005
Australia

Co-author

School of Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences, University of Tasmania - Lucieer, Arko (Associate Professor of Geography and Spatial Sciences)
Churchill Avenue, Hobart, Tasmania, 7005, Australia
Hobart
Tasmania
7005
Australia

Co-author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance - Sparrow, Ben (Director - TERN Ausplots and Eco-informatics)
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia

Author

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia
Website
https://www.tern.org.au/

Purpose
<p>The purpose of dronescape is to support TERN's multi-scale monitoring framework by providing high-quality, F.A.I.R. datasets that bridge the gap between field-based measurements and satellite imagery. The project enables detailed studies of vegetation community composition, structure, and spatio-temporal dynamics, facilitating research into species distribution, biodiversity, canopy architecture, phenology, and ecosystem responses to environmental changes. Additionally, dronescape serves as a platform for the remote sensing research community, providing resources for calibration/validation, protocol development, and processing algorithm innovation. By integrating UAV technology into standard ecosystem monitoring protocols, dronescape supports TERN's mission of providing comprehensive environmental research infrastructure at national and continental scales, while establishing standardized workflows for data collection, processing, and delivery through TERN's open-access infrastructure.</p>
Credit
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Credit
We thank the TERN Surveillance team, particularly Sally O'Neill, Carla Franson and Troy Bektas for logistics and field support. We also acknowledge the Terraluma lab members from the University of Tasmania, in particular Poornima Sivanandam, Darren Turner, Alice Robbins and Caitlyn Smart for their support in protocol development and data collection. We further acknowledge the support of the TERN Data Services team. This project was funded by TERN Landscapes & Surveillance.
Status
On going

Point of contact

School of Geography, Planning, and Spatial Sciences, University of Tasmania - Montes Herrera, Juan Carlos ()
Churchill Avenue, Hobart, Tasmania, 7005, Australia
Churchill Avenue
Hobart
Tasmania
7005
Australia

Point of contact

TERN Ecosystem Surveillance
Waite Road, Waite, South Australia, 5064, Australia
Waite Road
Waite
South Australia
5064
Australia
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information
  • Biota
  • Environment
  • Imagery base maps earth cover
  • Location

Extent

Description
Across TERN Surveillance Monitoring Plots.
N
S
E
W


Temporal extent

Time period
2024-03-12

Vertical element

Minimum value
0
Maximum value
100
Reference system identifier
EPSG/EPSG:5711

Reference system type
Geodetic Geographic 3D
Maintenance and update frequency
Quarterly
GCMD Science Keywords
  • REFLECTANCE
  • LIDAR
  • VEGETATION
  • COMMUNITY DYNAMICS
  • SOILS
  • VISIBLE IMAGERY
  • INFRARED IMAGERY
  • LAND SURFACE
  • BIOSPHERE
  • LANDSCAPE
ANZSRC Fields of Research
  • Photogrammetry and remote sensing
  • Terrestrial ecology
  • Forest biodiversity
TERN Platform Vocabulary
  • DJI Matrice 350 RTK
TERN Instrument Vocabulary
  • DJI Zenmuse P1
  • DJI Zenmuse L2
  • MicaSense RedEdge-P dual
TERN Parameter Vocabulary
  • multispectral imaging
  • Unitless
  • lidar point cloud
  • Metre
  • RGB values
  • Number
QUDT Units of Measure
  • Unitless
  • Metre
  • Number
GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
  • 30 meters - < 100 meters
GCMD Vertical Resolution Ranges
  • Point Resolution
GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
  • Multi-Year
Keywords (Discipline)
  • drone
  • uav
  • uas
  • lidar
  • multispectral
  • TERN Ecosystem Surveillance

Resource specific usage

Specific usage
The project enables detailed studies of vegetation community composition, structure, and spatio-temporal dynamics, facilitating research into species distribution, biodiversity, canopy architecture, phenology, and ecosystem responses to environmental changes. Additionally, dronescape serves as a platform for the remote sensing research community, providing resources for calibration/validation, protocol development, and processing algorithm innovation.

Resource constraints

Use limitation
The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license allows others to copy, distribute, display, and create derivative works provided that they credit the original source and any other nominated parties. Details are provided at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
File name
88x31.png
File description
CCBy Logo from creativecommons.org
File type
png
Linkage
https://w3id.org/tern/static/cc-by/88x31.png

Title
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
Alternate title
CC-BY
Edition
4.0
Website
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
TERN services are provided on an "as-is" and "as available" basis. Users use any TERN services at their discretion and risk. They will be solely responsible for any damage or loss whatsoever that results from such use including use of any data obtained through TERN and any analysis performed using the TERN infrastructure. <br />Web links to and from external, third party websites should not be construed as implying any relationships with and/or endorsement of the external site or its content by TERN. <br /><br />Please advise any work or publications that use this data via the online form at https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting
Other constraints
Please cite this dataset as {Author} ({PublicationYear}). {Title}. {Version, as appropriate}. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. {Identifier}.

Resource constraints

Classification
Unclassified
Environment description
<ul><li>RGB & Multispectral: Structure from Motion (SfM) in Agisoft Metashape (v2.1.1)</li> <li>LiDAR: Processed using DJI Terra 4.0.10</li></ul>

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • NetCDF

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
TERN UAV Dronescape Data File Structure

Distribution Information

Distribution format

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068, Australia
Indooroopilly
Queensland
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
TERN UAS Dronescape Data

OnLine resource
uas_dronescape

TERN UAS Dronescape WMS getcapabilities request

OnLine resource
TERN UAS Dronescape STAC Catalog

OnLine resource
TERN UAS Dronescape Map Visualizer

OnLine resource
TERN Dronescape Data Collection

OnLine resource
ro-crate-metadata.json

Data quality info

Hierarchy level
Dataset

Resource lineage

Statement
Data Collection<ul style="list-style-type: disc;"> <br></br> The TERN Dronescape UAV observations follow the standard <a href="https://www.tern.org.au/data-collection-protocols/">TERN Ecosystem Surveilance Protocols</a>. <br></br> Technical Specifications Platform<ul style="list-style-type: disc;"> <li>UAV: DJI Matrice 350 RTK</li> <li>Sensors:</li> <li> DJI Zenmuse P1 (RGB)</li> <li>Micasense RedEdge-P Dual (10-band multispectral)</li> <li> DJI Zenmuse L2 (LiDAR) </li> <li>Georeferencing: DJI D-RTK2 base station and onboard GNSS RTK</li> Multispectral Bands<ul style="list-style-type: disc;"> <li>Band 1: Coastal, Center 444 nm, FWHM 28 nm</li> <li>Band 2: Blue, Center 475 nm, FWHM 32 nm </li> <li>Band 3: Green, Center 531 nm, FWHM 14 nm </li> <li>Band 4: Green, Center 560 nm, FWHM 27 nm </li> <li>Band 5: Red, Center 650 nm, FWHM 16 nm </li> <li>Band 6: Red, Center 668 nm, FWHM 14 nm </li> <li>Band 7: RedEdge, Center 705 nm, FWHM 10 nm</li> <li>Band 8: RedEdge, Center 717 nm, FWHM 12 nm </li> <li>Band 9: Near-Infrared (NIR), Center 740 nm, FWHM 18 nm</li> <li>Band 10: Near-Infrared (NIR), Center 842 nm, FWHM 57 nm</li> <li>FWHM: Full Width at Half Maximum</li></ul> LiDAR sensor<ul style="list-style-type: disc;"> <li>Penta-return @ 240 khz</li> <li>Non-repetitive</li> <li>Variable LiDAR overlap based on canopy height (52% to 75%) </li> <li>RGB frontal overlap (70%)</li></ul> Data Processing<ul style="list-style-type: disc;"> <li>RGB and Multispectral: Structure from Motion (SfM) using Agisoft Metashape v2.1.1 </li> <li>LiDAR: Processed using DJI Terra 4.0.10 </li> <li>Resolution: 1–5 cm/pixel for orthomosaics </li> <li>Co-registration: RGB and multispectral data co-registered during post-processing</li></ul> Data Processing Levels<ul style="list-style-type: disc;"> Level 0: Raw Sensor Data <li>RGB: Original JPEG imagery with navigation files (.nav, .mrk, .obs, .bin) </li> <li>Multispectral: Raw 10-band TIF imagery with positioning data </li> <li>LiDAR: Raw point cloud data (LDR) with calibration and navigation files (CLC, CLI, RTK, RTL, RTS, RTB, IMU)</li> Level 1: Analysis-Ready Products <li>RGB: Cloud-optimized GeoTIFF orthomosaic </li> <li>Multispectral: 10-band cloud-optimized GeoTIFF orthomosaic </li> <li>LiDAR: Processed point clouds (LAS, PLY) and digital terrain models (COG)</li></ul> <br></br> Details on the Data Directory Structure are provided in the Readme text file.
Hierarchy level
Dataset
Title
TERN Data Collection Protocols
Website
https://www.tern.org.au/data-collection-protocols/

Method documentation

Reference System Information

Reference system identifier
EPSG/EPSG:7844

Reference system type
Geodetic Geographic 2D

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/6f06238f-8fbf-4306-8131-3b74729e1fc4

Title
TERN GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Point of contact

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
+61 7 3365 9097

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset
Metadata linkage
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/6f06238f-8fbf-4306-8131-3b74729e1fc4

Point-of-truth metadata URL

Date info (Creation)
2025-04-15T00:00:00.000000+00:00
Date info (Revision)
2025-12-10T10:14:48.502798+00:00

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-1:2014/AMD 1:2018 Geographic information - Metadata - Fundamentals
Edition
1

Metadata standard

Title
ISO/TS 19115-3:2016
Edition
1.0

Metadata standard

Title
ISO/TS 19157-2:2016
Edition
1.0
Title
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-3:2016 and ISO 19157-2:2016
Date (published)
2021
Edition
1.0

Identifier

Code
10.5281/zenodo.5652221
Website
https://github.com/ternaustralia/TERN-ISO19115/releases/tag/v1.0

 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

ANZSRC Fields of Research
Forest biodiversity Photogrammetry and remote sensing Terrestrial ecology
GCMD Science Keywords
BIOSPHERE COMMUNITY DYNAMICS INFRARED IMAGERY LAND SURFACE LANDSCAPE LIDAR REFLECTANCE SOILS VEGETATION VISIBLE IMAGERY

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Associated resources

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