Can Remote Sensing Technologies be Suitable for Monitoring and Estimating 'Sulla' Grazing?

Even today, the most accurate estimate of pasture mass is obtained by actually measuring the dry matter present in the pasture by facing rather high costs and response times. Studies have shown that satellite remote sensing is becoming an important tool for generating models suitable for estimating pasture quantity and quality parameters. The objective of the work is to estimate pasture biomass in the Villarosa area (Enna, Sicily) using remote sensing data from Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8-9 satellites, testing three models using different vegetation indices, with the 28 sampling data collected in the field. The use of satellite data proved to be an effective tool for monitoring and estimating biomass in Villarosa pastures and for identifying preferred areas from sheep by correlating them with factors such as different plant species composition or topography, among others. Further studies could deepen the analysis by integrating data from other sources, such as ground-based sensors or drones, and experimenting with different estimation models to improve the accuracy of biomass estimates.