DOI: 10.11118/978-80-7701-087-0-0072

COMPARISON OF MULTISPECTRAL DATA FROM UAV AND SATELLITE IMAGERY FOR MONITORING THE VEGETATION STATUS OF GOLF COURSES

Petr Karásek¹, Jiří Burian¹

¹ Research Institute for Soil and Water Conservation, Lidická 25, Brno 602 00, Czechia

Recreational areas such as golf courses represent a specific type of landscape element whose maintenance requires intensive vegetation management, particularly in terms of irrigation, fertilization, and regular turf maintenance. Considering the environmental impacts of these activities, there is an increasing need for methods that enable more efficient and environmentally sustainable management of such areas.
This contribution focuses on the use of multispectral data for monitoring the vegetation condition of turfgrass areas on a golf course and compares different sources of remote sensing data. Specifically, data acquired from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) DJI Mavic 3M and satellite systems Sentinel-2 and Planet are analyzed. The acquired imagery was processed into orthophotos and multispectral layers, from which selected vegetation indices (e.g., NDVI and GNDVI) were calculated.
The analysis focuses on comparing spatial resolution, level of detail, and the ability to identify spatial variability in vegetation condition among the different data sources. The results show that UAV imagery provides highly detailed information on local vegetation changes, while satellite data enable regular monitoring of vegetation development over a broader temporal scale. The combination of both approaches therefore represents a suitable tool for supporting the sustainable management of recreational areas, optimizing irrigation regimes, and reducing the excessive use of fertilizers and other environmental inputs.

Keywords: UAV; multispectral imaging; vegetation indices; recreational landscape; golf courses; sustainable turf management; Sentinel-2; Planet; remote sensing

pages: 72-75, Published: 2026, online: 2026