The Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVS) in Landscape Planning: The case of Smart Farming in an Agricultural Landscape

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are transforming both landscape planning and smart farming by delivering high-resolution, flexible, and cost-effective spatial data. This paper synthesizes current applications of UAVs in ecological monitoring, land-use planning, and precision agriculture, emphasizing their role in bridging farm-level management with regional planning goals. Drawing from recent advances in sensors, machine learning, and participatory approaches, the paper integrates a field-based case study from Adana, Türkiye, where UAV multispectral and thermal imagery were employed in wheat fields under controlled irrigation and nitrogen regimes. This Mediterranean example demonstrates how UAV-based monitoring can provide empirical evidence for linking farm-level diagnostics to landscape-scale resilience planning. The study concludes with methodological and governance insights for embedding UAV workflows into climate-resilient land-use systems.