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Abstract

What are the main findings?

Layout configuration of satellite–UAV integrated remote sensing was transformed into a spatial sampling problem.

An SSO (spatial sampling optimization) model was proposed.

What is the implication of the main finding?

Sampling efficiency requires considering both cost and accuracy.

The SSO-optimized plan improved efficiency by at least 38.7% over conventional plans.

Satellite and UAV-based remote sensing have been widely used for agricultural systems monitoring jointly. How to quantitatively optimize the efficiency of integrating these two techniques remains largely understudied. To address this gap, we, for the first time, formulate the configuration of satellite–UAV integrated system as a spatial sampling optimization problem and propose an SSO (spatial sampling optimization) model that jointly optimizes the spatial locations and flight paths of UAV sampling within the satellite monitoring area. The SSO model enables maximizing the accuracy of monitoring under a given cost constraint. We obtained comprehensive data in rapeseed fields and conducted experiments based on the SSO model. We compared the sampling effectiveness of the SSO model with that of simple random sampling, systematic sampling, equal stratified sampling and Neyman stratified sampling. The results showed that the SSO-optimized plan had the highest sampling efficiency, which was at least 38.7% higher than that of the best-performing conventional method (Neyman stratified sampling). Under the same cost constraint, the SSO-optimized sampling scheme can have 11.1% more sampling points than the conventional sampling scheme. The Elite Genetic Algorithm (EGA) performed well in solving the SSO model. The error of the SSO-optimized scheme was reduced by 27.3% and the sampling distance was reduced by 7000 to 8000 m on average. In conclusion, the proposed SSO model helps to optimize the configuration of satellite–UAV integrated remote sensing, thereby improving the cost-effectiveness of agricultural monitoring systems. We call for considering cost constraints and increasing efficiency in agricultural system monitoring and government censuses in the future.

Details

1009240
Title
Optimization of Spatial Sampling in Satellite–UAV Integrated Remote Sensing: Rationale and Applications in Crop Monitoring
Author
Zhao, Zhen 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Xiong Hang 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Yu, Yawen 2 ; Xu Baodong 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Zhang, Jian 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Digital Agriculture Research Institute, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China, College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China 
 Digital Agriculture Research Institute, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China, College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China 
 Digital Agriculture Research Institute, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China, College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China 
Publication title
Volume
17
Issue
23
First page
3895
Number of pages
20
Publication year
2025
Publication date
2025
Publisher
MDPI AG
Place of publication
Basel
Country of publication
Switzerland
Publication subject
e-ISSN
20724292
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
Document type
Journal Article
Publication history
 
 
Online publication date
2025-11-30
Milestone dates
2025-10-22 (Received); 2025-11-24 (Accepted)
Publication history
 
 
   First posting date
30 Nov 2025
ProQuest document ID
3280962396
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/optimization-spatial-sampling-satellite-uav/docview/3280962396/se-2?accountid=208611
Copyright
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.
Last updated
2025-12-10
Database
ProQuest One Academic