It is an effective and yet modern grassland ecosystem assessment method. The professional aerofotogrametric system uses the color intensity spectra to assess the landscape quality and obtain high resolution airborne images, including LIDAR data and hyper-spectral images to get the actual information of vegetation character and various environmental conditions, e.g. humidity, topography, drainage systems etc.

The method is not only efficient in recourses cause it doesn’t require any more than one person on the field observing thousands of hectares in several hours’ flight, it is also an advanced GIS mapping solution to gather different layers of information at a time.

This tool/equipment allows to produce thematic 3D maps and enables to generate surface models and its capacity calculations.

By matching different RGB color model images with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) images the object identification is performed and the environmental status is fixed and assessed. Performing grassland photography and applying the NIR photo camera can distinguish the different species of soil and plants.

The Institute of Environmental Solutions is performing aerial surveys of the grasslands in Cēsis Local Municipality, Farm “Šovītes” and Madliena Parish.