Conducting Vegetation Surveys Using Geotagged Photographs from Smartphone and Unmanned Aerial Systems

This publication aims to describe a simple method of importing and displaying geotagged images from unmanned aerial systems (UAS) or smartphones as vector symbols that are scaled and oriented to co-register with base layer maps in a geographic information system (GIS) without the need for processing into an orthomosaic. Instructions in this publication are for QGIS, version 3.28 LTR, but can be easily transferable to other GIS software. These methods offer an efficient and effective way to view high-resolution aerial images and photo-point image surveys in a GIS environment, allowing for basic analysis such as annotating features or points of interest. Written by J. S. Glueckert, A. E. Riner, J. K. Leary, K. L. Gladding, and E. C. Russell, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Agronomy, February 2026.