Towards Smart Irrigation: A Literature Review on the Use of Geospatial Technologies and Machine Learning in the Management of Water Resources in Arboriculture

Agriculture consumes an important ratio of the water reserve in irrigated areas. The improvement of irrigation is becoming essential to reduce this high water consumption by adapting supplies to the crop needs and avoiding losses. This global issue has prompted many scientists to reflect on sustainable solutions using innovative technologies, namely Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), Machine Learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT). This article aims to present an overview of the use of these new technologies in the analysis of the water status of crops for better irrigation management, with an emphasis on arboriculture. The review demonstrated the importance of UAV-ML-IoT technologies. This contribution is due to the relevant information that can be collected from IoT sensors and extracted from UAV images through various sensors (RGB, multispectral, hyperspectral, thermal), and the ability of ML models to monitor and predict water status. The review in this paper is organized into four main sections: the use of UAV in arboriculture, UAV for irrigation management in arboriculture, IoT systems and irrigation management, and ML for data processing and decision-making. A discussion is presented regarding the prospects for smart irrigation using geospatial technologies and machine learning.