613 GUIDES · REGULATIONS, PRICES, CRAFT · PAGE 4/30

Professional drone guides — page 4

EU regulations, real prices, mission preparation: concrete answers before commissioning a drone service.

• Olive groves by drone: AOP Nyons, olive fly (Bactrocera oleae), vigour, priceFrance, around 50,000 ha of olive groves, nine AOP designations including Nyons and Vallée des Baux. What a multispectral and RGB drone flight brings against the olive fly and for tracking vigour after frost or alternate bearing. Method and 2026 prices (excl. VAT).
• Cherry orchards and drones: targeting thinning against Drosophila suzukii, netting, priceSince arriving in France in 2010, Drosophila suzukii lays eggs in healthy cherries before harvest — leading to a €4.7m compensation payout in 2016. What science says about canopy shade and humidity, and what a drone survey draws from it to target thinning and check exclusion netting. 2026 method and prices (excl. VAT).
• Racecourses and drones: mapping track vigour, rails and priceFrance has 233 racecourses, many run by small local racing societies with no track-measurement equipment. What a 2026 New Zealand study says about turf uniformity and injury risk, and what a drone vigour map draws from it for a racecourse. 2026 method and prices (excl. VAT).
• Saffron fields and drones: crocus flowering, weeds and priceLess than 100 kg of saffron produced each year in France, on plots of a few hundred square metres to one hectare. What two studies document about drone-based crocus flower detection, and what a dawn flight changes. Method and 2026 prices (excl. VAT).
• Digestate spreading: what a drone survey documents for an anaerobic digestion plan, 2026 priceDistances to third parties and watercourses, spreading uniformity, a dated record for the ICPE 2781 file: what an orthophoto or a multispectral survey add to an anaerobic digestion plant's digestate spreading plan, method and 2026 prices (excl. VAT).
• Almond orchards and drone: Xylella fastidiosa, young orchards and early frost, priceFrance is replanting almond orchards but still relies heavily on imports (around 1,000 t produced against more than 42,000 t imported yearly). What a drone survey adds against Xylella fastidiosa, an incurable quarantine bacterium, and for a young orchard being established. Method and 2026 prices (excl. VAT).
• Agricultural water reservoirs by drone: volume, siltation and water-law permits, priceHow a drone photogrammetry survey measures an agricultural water reservoir's real volume, tracks its siltation over time and feeds a water-law permit file. Dam classification, substitution reservoirs and 2026 prices (excl. VAT).
• Flax fibre by drone: mapping lodging, tracking field retting, priceHow a drone detects flax lodging after wind damage, and what repeated aerial monitoring can bring to judging field retting, in the world's leading production area. Method and 2026 prices (excl. VAT).
• Hops and hop yards by drone: vigour, downy mildew, multispectral mapping, price750 ha of hops in France in 2024 (+92% in ten years), 63% in Alsace (Bas-Rhin). What a multispectral flight captures on a canopy climbing 6-10 m — invisible from the row — for vigour and downy mildew monitoring. Method and 2026 prices (excl. VAT).
• Race circuits and karting tracks: drone track surveys, and the rule that changes everything once there's a crowdAerial survey of an FFSA-approved circuit's track surface (cracks, bleeding, drainage) outside race days, and why filming a race with spectators falls under the strict "assembly of people" rules. Method and 2026 prices (excl. VAT).
• Sargassum strandings in the French Caribbean: what a drone actually measures on the foreshoreMapping sargassum deposits beach by beach, estimating volumes by photogrammetry and prioritising collection within 48 hours in Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana. What a drone brings, what it does not measure (H2S), and 2026 prices excl. VAT.
• Sugarcane seen from a drone: vigour, ratoons and biomass in Réunion and the French AntillesThree-metre-tall cane cannot be judged from the edge of a field. What a multispectral drone survey brings to growers, sugar mills and rum distilleries in Réunion, Guadeloupe and Martinique: field variability, weak ratoons, gaps to replant, cyclone lodging, plus 2026 prices (excl. VAT).
• Mapping and monitoring a mangrove by drone: Guiana, Mayotte, the Antilles, New CaledoniaFrance's 87,905 hectares of mangrove are a vital and near-impassable environment on foot. What a drone survey brings to the manager — extent, canopy height, dieback, cyclone damage, replanting follow-up — and what it does not measure, with 2026 prices (excl. VAT).
• Coral reef and lagoon monitoring by drone: what the aerial view adds in France's overseas territories, and what it does not replaceFrance holds 10% of the world's coral reefs. What a drone actually maps over a reef flat — habitats, bleaching, turbid plumes, anchoring — the limits imposed by light and tide, the overflight rules for marine reserves, and 2026 prices excluding VAT.
• Monitoring an active volcano by drone: Piton de la Fournaise, La Soufrière, Mount PeléeFrance has three active volcanoes, three IPGP observatories and a tightly locked access framework. What a drone actually brings after an eruption — flow extent, thickness and volume, cone morphology, thermal imaging — what it does not do, and 2026 prices excl. VAT.
• Heat islands and canopy plans: at what scale to measure, and what the drone adds to the satelliteSentinel-3 sees the kilometre, Landsat the hundred metres, ECOSTRESS seventy: enough to rank a conurbation, not enough to arbitrate a schoolyard. What a thermal and photogrammetric drone survey brings to a municipal canopy plan, its limits, and 2026 prices excl. VAT.
• Drone and hot-mix asphalt plant: ICPE heading 2521, mixing tower, silos and aggregate stockpilesA hot-mix asphalt plant falls under ICPE heading 2521 in the registration regime, runs non-stop through the paving season and stands over thirty metres tall. What a drone documents — silo and bitumen-tank insulation, stack, corrosion, aggregate and millings stockpile volumes — and what it does not certify. 2026 prices, excl. VAT.
• Drone and crushing-screening plant: ICPE heading 2515, mobile units, conical stockpiles and dustA crushing and screening plant falls under ICPE heading 2515, classified by installed machine power, with a separate regime for temporary mobile units. What the drone inspects on the plant, how it measures each conical stockpile, and what it does not measure on the dust side. 2026 method and prices (excl. VAT).
• Drones at a brick and tile works: tunnel kiln, dryers, chimney and clay quarryClay-product manufacturing falls under ICPE heading 2523 and moves into the IED regime under heading 3350 above 75 t/day. What a drone documents at a working brick and tile works — roofs, chimney, tunnel-kiln casing, dryers, clay quarry — and what it does not replace. 2026 prices (excl. VAT).
• Drone and oilseed crushing plant: silos, hexane extraction, ATEX and roofsAn oilseed crushing plant combines grain silos, flammable-solvent extraction and lagged oil tanks. What a drone survey documents from outside the ATEX zones — roofs, columns, pipe racks, meal stockpiles — and what it does not measure. 2026 method and prices (excl. VAT).
• Drone and rice farming in Camargue: vigour, red rice and flying near a nature reserveCamargue grows 98% of France's rice, rotated with durum wheat to desalinate the soil. What a multispectral survey spots on a paddy field — vigour, red rice, plot flatness — and the delta's own constraint: the nature reserve. 2026 method and prices (excl. VAT).