swaths

A swath is a broad strip or belt of land, vegetation, or material produced by cutting, mowing, or by the passage of a vehicle or instrument. The noun can refer to the strip itself or to the cutting action that creates it. The word is commonly spelled swath; its variant swathe is more common in British English.

In agriculture, a swath is the line of crop that has been cut and laid in a loose row across the field to dry before collection. Mowers and combine headers create swaths; after drying, the crop is often raked into windrows for baling or threshing. Swath width depends on the equipment used and field conditions.

In forestry and land management, a swath describes a linear strip where vegetation has been cleared, damaged, or disturbed by logging, controlled burning, or machinery. Such swaths can serve to create access routes, reduce fuel loads, or delineate boundaries. The term is also used to describe burned or felled strips in salvage or fuel-management operations.

In remote sensing, swath refers to the ground area captured in a single pass of a sensor or aircraft. The swath width is the width of ground covered per pass and influences overall coverage planning, with multiple passes required for complete mapping.