Brief communication: Improving botanical monitoring in proglacial areas with high-resolution UAV data

Abstract. Proglacial areas are undergoing rapid ecological and land cover changes as glaciers retreat globally. Field campaigns are essential in proglacial environments to monitor the colonization of the deglaciated areas by the vegetation. In this study, we evaluate the benefit of using optical UAV images to optimize botanical data collection during these campaigns. We compared the vegetation cover measured in situ by experts with the vegetation cover derived from high-resolution UAV images in a high-mountain environment below the Aneto glacier in the Pyrenees. Retrieving the vegetation cover from UAV images provided valuable and complementary data to traditional in situ detailed observations.