# Ensuring Agricultural Sustainability through Remote Sensing in the Era of Agriculture 5.0
## 1 Introduction
Therefore, a promising technology like RS can be an efficient tool to support agricultural sustainability. As an example, having RS as a novel tool to face adversities in agriculture, especially in developing countries, will produce positive effects in the global economy (maintaining the cost of agricultural products), will reduce the scale of economic emigration (often due to one or several years of low crop yield), and will help distribute richness more evenly across the planet [5,6]. In this 5 th industrial revolution, RS has the potential of being one of the most important technologies for today's agriculture. This is why RS, in the context of \"agriculture 5.0\", is discussed in this article. RS sprouted in the 19 th century (specifically in 1858) through the use of air balloons for aerial observations [7]. At present, it occupies a central position in precision agriculture (PA) and soil studies. It is also important to mention some of the interchangeable terms most commonly used include \"precision farming\", \"precision approach\", \"remote sensing\", \"digital farming\", \"information intensive agriculture\", \"smart agriculture\", \"variable rate technology (VRT)\", \"global navigation satellite system (GNSS) agriculture\", \"farming by inch\", \"site specific crop management\", \"digital agriculture\", \"agriculture 5.0\", etc. RS is a vast term that covers various technological systems, such as satellites, RPAs, GNSS, geographic information systems (GIS), big data analysis, the Internet of Things (IoT), the Internet of Everything (IoE), cloud computing, wireless sensors technologies (WST), decision support systems (DSS), and autonomous robots. A remarkable breakthrough in RS technology occurred approximately fifty years ago with the advent, and later with launch, of Landsat-1 in 1972 [8]. Given the importance of such technologies, a rapid increase in investigations in the agricultural domain has been witnessed in termsof the number of publications. For example, in the last five years (2015-2019) the highest number of publications regarding the use of RPAs in agriculture belonged to Europe at 34%, followed by United States and China at 20% and 11%, respectively [6]. Primary work on RS has mainly been focused on the reflection mechanism, absorption, and diffusion of light rays from plant leaves, which differ based on the leaf thickness, structure, and pigment content of plant species [9]. Nevertheless, during the last decade, the scenario has changed and RS technology has been entirely revolutionized. Current studies are more related to designing novel algorithms, improving sensor technology, and the incorporation of artificial intelligence. In addition, agricultural RS is now experiencing a shift from structural parameter monitoring to functional trait monitoring, e.g., nitrogen contents, foliar and canopy functional traits, pigments, etc. For example, a profound characterization of spatiotemporal variability of chlorophyll a and b contents has been recently undertaken [10]. The \"SmartAgro\" project is a Romanian national project with the aim of developing a self-diagnosing and self-configuring telemetry system, enabling the use of IoT for areas with limited global system for mobile communication (GSM) signals [11], and is an example of improving the potential of RS by filling in research gaps. Similarly, various projects by the European Union (EU), such as \"VIRTUOUS\", \"NEWBIE\", \"SWAMP\", etc., are also oriented to strengthen modern precision agriculture by utilizing state-of-the-art computational technologies [12; 13; 14]. In the same way, the creation of new AI-enabled software and applications is underway, which can verbally communicate with users and receive commands, e.g., AgroHub [15]. Quite a number of review articles, with respect to RS, are also available now--discussing or comparing particular aspects of these novel technologies.