One of the leading sectors where remote sensing, particularly ground-based and airborne, has seen major advances in the last few decades is agriculture. More recently, it has become one of the leading application sectors in the drone market. Drone technology was introduced into the sector more than two decades ago.¹ Nowadays, the second and sixth biggest addressable markets for drone-based solutions are, respectively, agriculture (for crop monitoring), with an estimated potential value of $32.4bn, and the insurance industry (for risk monitoring and assessment), with an addressable market value of $6.8bn.²

Another application sector for drone-based solutions is emergency management, especially in the case of natural disasters such as floods. On the one hand, drones can be useful before a flood occurs by collecting lots of data on important infrastructure, and for supporting flood risk assessment efforts. On the other hand, drones can be useful after a flood occurs, for flood extent and damage assessment.³