Management zones transform highly detailed agricultural maps into manageable datasets by grouping similar regions—either geographically or visually—within a field. Categorizing your area of interest according to a range of values leads to a better understanding of overall crop health.
What is Zone Management?
The Grid option geographically groups the plant health map into larger pixels to help manage areas with poor plant health that require more attention. The Zones option groups the health of the plants by distinguishing areas into three contrasting visual categories. You can tailor these zones to suit specific thresholds you set in the histogram.
Use the DroneDeploy Grid and Zones tools to:
Designate ranges of "healthy" and "unhealthy" according to your own knowledge of your field.
Ground truth more effectively.
Sample areas that are meaningful within your external software.
Availability: Who has access?
Zone Management and agricultural tools are available for all paid DroneDeploy Aerial subscriptions. This feature is found within the Plant Health layer of the map view.
How to use Zone Management
Follow these steps to access and configure your management tools:
Open the Plant Health Layer Click the arrow next to the Plant Health layer, located on the left-hand side panel under the Explore tab.
Turn ON Grid Select the Grid toggle to convert the plant health map into square pixels of roughly 50ft.
Turn ON Zones Toggle the Zones option to divide your map into three regions. Tune the range of index values by moving the slider dots on the histogram. Perform this in conjunction with ground-truthing to ensure results match field conditions.
Combine Zones and Grid Select both the Zone and Grid options to generate a grid divided by the three zones.
Key Features
Histogram Tuning: Adjust sliders to reflect correct thresholds for your specific crop type.
Export Capability: Zones can be exported as shapefiles (SHP) for use in variable rate recommendations and nitrogen prescription generation.
Limitations
Resolution: The default grid size is roughly 50ft; custom grid sizing may be limited depending on your subscription level.
Data Type: This tool requires a Plant Health layer generated from a supported sensor or camera type.
FAQs
Q: Does Zone Management work with any camera?
A: Yes, it works with standard RGB cameras as well as multispectral cameras like the Phantom 4 Multispectral or MicaSense.
Q: Can I change the number of zones?
A: Currently, the Zones tool default is three contrasting categories.
Q: Can I use this for insurance documentation?
A: Yes. By turning on advanced plant health analytics, you can look at zone variability to designate the acreage of damaged crops for insurance claims.
V2.2