Taking a closer look at invasive alien plant research: A review of the current state, opportunities, and future directions for UAVs

The development and proliferation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in recent years presents a new data collection opportunity for invasive alien plant (IAP) research. The flexibility and cost-efficiency of these craft offers a valuable solution where high-spatial or high-temporal resolution remotely sensed data are required. In this paper, we review all published studies using UAV for remote data collection in IAP research. We have systematically identified the taxonomy and habitat characteristics of the system studied, classified the UAV configuration, analytical methods and the limitations of each study. We used this synthesis to identify research gaps, suggest directions for future research, and identify opportunities for practical application of the technology.