Image: Don Bertram
Researchers at the University of West Virginia Davis School of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design received a $175,000 grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to use UAVs to detect, map, and process alien plant species. , developing tools to monitor
Multiflora roses are exotic shrubs that threaten native plants in more than 40 states, including West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The project aims to equip unmanned aerial vehicles with sensors to collect environmental data over multiple seasons in designated areas of southwestern Pennsylvania. The research team plans to use that data in combination with machine learning techniques to develop software that can identify multiflora roses and, eventually, other invasive species. This software could potentially be used for targeted delivery of herbicides via UAVs.
To help advance this project, WVU is providing technical assistance for CNX, a natural gas company headquartered in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, and a proposed landfill use and herbicide ecosystem. We are working with two partners, including restoration company Resource Environmental Solutions. Select and expand.
This project builds on ongoing UAV-based research being conducted by the National Resource Analysis Center (NRAC) and the US Mine Reclamation and Enforcement Agency. Current research focuses on autumn olives, he one of the most common invasive brush species in West Virginia.
Most of the data collection and analysis focused on multiflora roses will begin in the spring growing season of 2024, but a team of NRAC researchers is already using autumn olive data to find out how multiflora roses work. We are checking whether we can collect the necessary information.
