In this thesis I investigated the applicability of drones to identify habitats of alien invasive plant species. The focus was on smaller, affordable commercial drones. The main objective of the research was to determine the effectiveness of using orthomosaics created from photographs taken by drones compared to traditional field surveys. The research included a review of the literature on drones and invasive plants, taking photographs, creating orthomosaics, conducting field surveys, and comparing the success of the two methods. The study focussed on three invasive plant species: knotweed, goldenrod and Himalayan balsam, which occur in six different study areas. The results showed that the identification of invasive plant habitats using orthomosaics is less time-consuming than field surveys. The identification success rate varied considerably depending on the species and area. Identification success was very high for knotweed, but lower for the other two species. The method has proven to be very suitable in certain cases, but it also has its limitations. The main challenges are the dense vegetation, e.g. in forests, and the limited flight time due to the battery capacity of the drone.
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