The vegetation cover plays a fundamental role in protecting the soil from erosive processes. Many researchers have developed investigations for the calculation of the RUSLE C Factor, with the use of operating bands in the near infrared. With the current advances in Geospatial Technologies, there are a good number of RGB airborne sensors in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UVA). The objective of this chapter is to evaluate some RGB indexes, proposed in the literature, for the protection of the soil from erosive processes by vegetation cover, in a region with a high agricultural vocation. The methodology consisted of capturing RGB images in an area of the Ecuadorian coastal region and calculating in thematic indices, within the visible one, which offer the possibility of quickly differentiating vegetation from other types of coverage on the ground. The evaluation allowed to define which indexes present the best results and adaptation to the type of crop or plant mass mapped, and to propose their use for zoning of risk of erosion under the agro-ecological conditions of the study area.
Part of the book: Soil Erosion