We applied drone remote sensing to identify relationships between key forest health indicators collected in the field and four Vegetative Indices (VI) to improve conservation management of urban forests. Key indicators of urban forest health revealed several areas of conservation concern including a majority of overstory trees in moderate to severe decline, canopy gaps, anthropogenic dumping, vines overtaking the forest canopy, and invasion by non-native plant species. We found plot-level vegetation index (VI) values of NDVI, NDRE, GNDVI, and GRVI calculated from drone imagery are significantly related to the impact of several of these ecological concerns as well as metrics of forest composition and equitability. Despite the small number of plots, too few to provide a general predictive framework, these findings indicate a substantial potential for drone remote sensing as a low-cost, efficient tool for urban forest management. We discuss how our findings can advance urban forest management and discuss challenges and opportunities for future drone VI research in urban natural areas.

我们应用无人机遥感来确定在野外收集的关键森林健康指标与四个植物指数 (VI) 之间的关系，以改善城市森林的保护管理。城市森林健康的关键指标揭示了几个需要关注的保护领域，包括大多数中度至严重衰退的覆盖层树木、树冠缺口、人为倾倒、藤蔓覆盖森林树冠以及外来植物物种的入侵。我们发现地块级植被指数 (VI) 值为从无人机图像计算的 NDVI、NDRE、GNDVI 和 GRVI 与其中几个生态问题的影响以及森林构成和公平性的指标显着相关。尽管地块数量很少，太少而无法提供一个通用的预测框架，但这些发现表明无人机遥感作为一种低成本、高效的城市森林管理工具具有巨大的潜力。我们讨论了我们的发现如何促进城市森林管理，并讨论了未来无人机在城市自然区域进行 VI 研究的挑战和机遇。