Publication
Title
Assessing agricultural damage by wild boar using drones
Author
Abstract
In Flanders (northern Belgium), wild boar (Sus scrofa) returned in 2006 after 50 years of absence and the population is increasing, both in abundance and geographic extent. In the absence of wild boar, Flanders landscape structure changed into a dense, mosaic‐like pattern of agricultural, natural, and urban areas. The return of the wild boar increasingly leads to humanwildlife conflicts, mainly linked to damage in agriculture. Hence, there is a growing need for a time‐efficient, standardized, and accurate method to assess crop damage. We present an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle‐based method, using Geographic Object‐Based Image Analysis and Random Forests to estimate the damaged area and associated yield losses, between 2015 and 2017, due to wild boar in individual fields in Flanders. Our approach resulted in an 84.50% overall accuracy in calculating damaged area for maize fields and 94.40% for grasslands. Damage levels ranged between 14.3% and 20.2% in maize fields and 16.5% to 25.4% in grasslands. Our method can provide objective base data for compensation schemes and guide management strategies based on damage assessments.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Wildlife Society bulletin. - Bethesda, Md, 1973 - 2006
Publication
Bethesda, Md : Wildlife Society , 2018
ISSN
0091-7648 [print]
1938-5463 [online]
DOI
10.1002/WSB.916
Volume/pages
42 :4 (2018) , p. 568-576
ISI
000454528600004
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Modelling the risk of agricultural damage in Flanders as a consequence of wild boar (Sus scrofa) presence.
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 26.09.2018
Last edited 09.10.2023
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