Mapping winter wheat with combinations of temporally aggregated Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 data in Shandong Province, China

Winter wheat is one of the major cereal crops in China. The spatial distribution of winter wheat planting areas is closely related to food security; however, mapping winter wheat with time-series finer spatial resolution satellite images across large areas is challenging. This paper explores the potential of combining temporally aggregated Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI data available via the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform for mapping winter wheat in Shandong Province, China. First, six phenological median composites of Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI reflectance measures were generated by a temporal aggregation technique according to the winter wheat phenological calendar, which covered seedling, tillering, over-wintering, reviving, jointing-heading and maturing phases, respectively. Then, Random Forest (RF) classifier was used to classify multi-temporal composites but also mono-temporal winter wheat development phases and mono-sensor data. The results showed that winter wheat could be classified with an overall accuracy of 93.4% and F1 measure (the harmonic mean of producer’s and user’s accuracy) of 0.97 with temporally aggregated Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 data were combined. As our results also revealed, it was always good to classify multi-temporal images compared to mono-temporal imagery (the overall accuracy dropped from 93.4% to as low as 76.4%). It was also good to classify Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI imagery combined instead of classifying them individually. The analysis showed among the mono-temporal winter wheat development phases that the maturing phase’s and reviving phase’s data were more important than the data for other mono-temporal winter wheat development phases. In sum, this study confirmed the importance of using temporally aggregated Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI data combined and identified key winter wheat development phases for accurate winter wheat classification. These results can be useful to benefit on freely available optical satellite data (Landsat-8 OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI) and prioritize key winter wheat development phases for accurate mapping winter wheat planting areas across China and elsewhere

Quantifying Irrigated Winter Wheat LAI in Argentina Using Multiple Sentinel-1 Incidence Angles

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data provides an appealing opportunity for all-weather day or night Earth surface monitoring. The European constellation Sentinel-1 (S1) consisting of S1-A and S1-B satellites offers a suitable revisit time and spatial resolution for the observation of croplands from space. The C-band radar backscatter is sensitive to vegetation structure changes and phenology as well as soil moisture and roughness. It also varies depending on the local incidence angle (LIA) of the SAR acquisition’s geometry. The LIA backscatter dependency could therefore be exploited to improve the retrieval of the crop biophysical variables. The availability of S1 radar time-series data at distinct observation angles holds the feasibility to retrieve leaf area index (LAI) evolution considering spatiotemporal coverage of intensively cultivated areas. Accordingly, this research presents a workflow merging multi-date S1 smoothed data acquired at distinct LIA with a Gaussian processes regression (GPR) and a cross-validation (CV) strategy to estimate cropland LAI of irrigated winter wheat. The GPR-S1-LAI model was tested against in situ data of the 2020 winter wheat campaign in the irrigated valley of Colorador river, South of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. We achieved adequate validation results for LAI with R2CV = 0.67 and RMSECV = 0.88 m2 m−2. The trained model was further applied to a series of S1 stacked images, generating temporal LAI maps that well reflect the crop growth cycle. The robustness of the retrieval workflow is supported by the associated uncertainties along with the obtained maps. We found that processing S1 smoothed imagery with distinct acquisition geometries permits accurate radar-based LAI modeling throughout large irrigated areas and in consequence can support agricultural management practices in cloud-prone agri-environments.EEA Hilario AscasubiFil: Caballero, Gabriel. Technological University of Uruguay (UTEC). Agri-Environmental Engineering; UruguayFil: Caballero, Gabriel. University of Valencia. Image Processing Laboratory (IPL); EspañaFil: Pezzola, Alejandro. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Hilario Ascasubi; ArgentinaFil: Winschel, Cristina Ines. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Hilario Ascasubi; ArgentinaFil: Casella, Alejandra. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Clima y Agua; ArgentinaFil: Sanchez Angonova, Paolo Andres. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Hilario Ascasubi; ArgentinaFil: Orden, Luciano. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Hilario Ascasubi; ArgentinaFil: Orden, Luciano. Universidad Miguel Hernández. Centro de Investigación e Innovación Agroalimentaria y Agroambiental. GIAAMA Reseach Group; EspañaFil: Berger, Katja. University of Valencia. Image Processing Laboratory (IPL); EspañaFil: Berger, Katja. Mantle Labs GmbH; AustriaFil: Verrelst, Jochem. University of Valencia. Image Processing Laboratory (IPL); EspañaFil: Delegido, Jesús. Universidad de Valencia. Image Processing Laboratory (IPL); Españ

A novel Greenness and Water Content Composite Index (GWCCI) for soybean mapping from single remotely sensed multispectral images

As a critical source of food and one of the most economically significant crops in the world, soybean plays an important role in achieving food security. Large area accurate mapping of soybean has long been a vital, but challenging issue in remote sensing, relying heavily on large-volume and representative training samples, whose collection is time-consuming and inefficient, especially for large areas (e.g., national scale). Thus, methods are needed that can map soybean automatically and accurately from single-date remotely sensed imagery. In this research, a novel Greenness and Water Content Composite Index (GWCCI) was proposed to map soybean from just a single Sentinel-2 multispectral image in an end-to-end manner without employing training samples. By capitalizing on the product of the NDVI (related to greenness) and the short-wave infrared (SWIR) band (related to canopy water content), the GWCCI provides the required information with which to discriminate between soybean and other land cover types. The effectiveness of the proposed GWCCI was investigated in seven typical soybean planting regions within four major soybean-producing countries across the world (i.e., China, the United States, Brazil and Argentina), with diverse climates, cropping systems and agricultural landscapes. In the experiments, an optimal threshold of 0.17 was estimated and adopted by the GWCCI in the first study site (S1) in 2021, and then generalised to the other study sites over multiple years for soybean mapping. The GWCCI method achieved a consistently higher accuracy in 2021 compared to two conventional comparative classifiers (support vector machine (SVM) and random forest (RF)), with an average overall accuracy (OA) of 88.30% and a Kappa coefficient (k) of 0.77; significantly greater than those of RF (OA: 80.92%, k: 0.62) and SVM (OA: 80.29%, k: 0.60). Furthermore, the OA of the extended years was highly consistent with that of 2021 for study sites S2 to S7, demonstrating the great generalisation capability and robustness of the proposed approach over multiple years. The proposed GWCCI method is straightforward, reliable and robust, and represents an important step forward for mapping soybean, one of the most significant crops grown globally

Remote sensing inversion of soil organic matter in cropland combining topographic factors with spectral parameters

Remote sensing has become an effective way for regional soil organic matter (SOM) quantitative analysis. Topographic factors affect SOM content and distribution, also influence the accuracy of SOM remote sensing inversion. In large region with complex topographic conditions, characteristic topographic factors of SOM in different topographic regions are unknown, and the effect of combining characteristic topographic factors with spectral parameters on improving SOM inversion accuracy remains to be further studied. Three typical topographic regions of Shandong Province in China, namely Western plain region (WPR), Central and southern mountain region (CSMR), Eastern hilly region (EHR), were selected. Topographic factors, namely Elevation, Slope, Aspect and Relief Amplitude, were introduced. Respectively, the characteristic topographic factors and spectral parameters of SOM in each region were identified. The SOM inversion models were built separately for each region by integrating spectral parameters with topographic factors. The results revealed that as for the characteristic topographic factors of SOM, none was in the WPR, E, RA, and S were in the CSMR, E and RA were in the EHR. In combination with characteristic topographic factors, the accuracy of SOM spectral inversion models improved, the calibration R2 increased by 0.075–0.102, the RMSE (Root mean square error) decreased by 0.162–0.171 g/kg, the validation R2 increased by 0.067–0.095, the RMSE decreased by 0.236–0.238 g/kg, and RPD (Relative prediction deviation) increased by 0.129–0.169. The most significant improvement was observed in the CSMR with the calibration R2 of 0.725, the validation R2 of 0.713 and the RPD of 1.852, followed by the EHR. This study not only contributes to the advancement of soil quantitative remote sensing theory but also offers more precise data support for the development of green, low-carbon, and precision agriculture

Mapping the annual dynamics of cultivated land in typical area of the Middle-lower Yangtze plain using long time-series of Landsat images based on Google Earth Engine

Cultivated land in Middle-lower Yangtze Plain has been greatly reduced over the last few decades due to rapid urban expansion and massive urban construction. Accurate and timely monitoring of cultivated land changes has significant for regional food security and the impact of national land policy on cultivated land dynamics. However, generating high-resolution spatial-temporal records of cultivated land dynamics in complex areas remains difficult due to the limitations of computing resources and the diversity of land cover over a complex region. In our study, the annual dynamics of cultivated land in Middle-lower Yangtze Plain were first produced at 30 m resolution with a one-year interval in 1990–2010.Changes of vegetation and cultivated land are examined with the breakpoints inter-annual Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) trajectories and synthetic NDVI derived by the enhanced spatial and temporal adaptive reflectance fusion model (ESTRAFM), respectively. Last, cultivated land dynamics is extracted with a one-year interval by detecting phenological characteristic. The results indicate that the rate of reduction in cultivated land area has accelerated over the past two decades, and has intensified since 1997.The dynamics of cultivated land mainly occurred in the mountains, hills, lakes and around towns, and the change frequency of these area was mainly one or two times. In particular, the changes in cultivated land in Nanjing have been most intense, perhaps attributed to urban greening and infrastructure construction

Applications of satellite ‘hyper-sensing’ in Chinese agriculture:Challenges and opportunities

Ensuring adequate food supplies to a large and increasing population continues to be the key challenge for China. Given the increasing integration of China within global markets for agricultural products, this issue is of considerable significance for global food security. Over the last 50 years, China has increased the production of its staple crops mainly by increasing yield per unit land area. However, this has largely been achieved through inappropriate agricultural practices, which have caused environmental degradation, with deleterious consequences for future agricultural productivity. Hence, there is now a pressing need to intensify agriculture in China using practices that are environmentally and economically sustainable. Given the dynamic nature of crops over space and time, the use of remote sensing technology has proven to be a valuable asset providing end-users in many countries with information to guide sustainable agricultural practices. Recently, the field has experienced considerable technological advancements reflected in the availability of ‘hyper-sensing’ (high spectral, spatial and temporal) satellite imagery useful for monitoring, modelling and mapping of agricultural crops. However, there still remains a significant challenge in fully exploiting such technologies for addressing agricultural problems in China. This review paper evaluates the potential contributions of satellite ‘hyper-sensing’ to agriculture in China and identifies the opportunities and challenges for future work. We perform a critical evaluation of current capabilities in satellite ‘hyper-sensing’ in agriculture with an emphasis on Chinese sensors. Our analysis draws on a series of in-depth examples based on recent and on-going projects in China that are developing ‘hyper-sensing’ approaches for (i) measuring crop phenology parameters and predicting yields; (ii) specifying crop fertiliser requirements; (iii) optimising management responses to abiotic and biotic stress in crops; (iv) maximising yields while minimising water use in arid regions; (v) large-scale crop/cropland mapping; and (vi) management zone delineation. The paper concludes with a synthesis of these application areas in order to define the requirements for future research, technological innovation and knowledge exchange in order to deliver yield sustainability in China

Sustainable Agriculture and Advances of Remote Sensing (Volume 1)

Agriculture, as the main source of alimentation and the most important economic activity globally, is being affected by the impacts of climate change. To maintain and increase our global food system production, to reduce biodiversity loss and preserve our natural ecosystem, new practices and technologies are required. This book focuses on the latest advances in remote sensing technology and agricultural engineering leading to the sustainable agriculture practices. Earth observation data, in situ and proxy-remote sensing data are the main source of information for monitoring and analyzing agriculture activities. Particular attention is given to earth observation satellites and the Internet of Things for data collection, to multispectral and hyperspectral data analysis using machine learning and deep learning, to WebGIS and the Internet of Things for sharing and publishing the results, among others

Explotación sinérgica de datos multiespectrales y radar para la estimación de variables biofísicas de la vegetación mediante tecnologías de sensoramiento remoto

Las variables biofísicas de la vegetación (VBV) son indicadores directos del crecimiento y productividad de los cultivos. Los sistemas de observación de la Tierra (EO–Earth observation) presentan oportunidades sin precedentes para el monitoreo de las variables biofísicas del trigo. Sentinel–2 (S2) es una constelación de satélites que forma parte de las misiones Sentinel del programa Copernicus de EO. El período de revisita, así como su resolución espacial y espectral, han convertido a S2 en un sistema de EO trascendental para el monitoreo de VBV. Los sistemas ópticos de EO se ven limitados con frecuencia por las condiciones climáticas tales como nubosidad o precipitaciones. En este sentido, la tecnología radar, presenta nuevas oportunidades para el monitoreo de VBV que deben explorarse en profundidad. Sentinel–1 (S1) es una constelación radar de la familia Sentinel. Debido a la complejidad de la interacción de la señal radar con las superficies cultivadas y al ruido aditivo inherente de speckle, la estimación de VBV con tecnología radar aún sigue siendo un desafío. El objetivo de esta tesis doctoral es desarrollar modelos de estimación de variables biofísicas del trigo, en una zona irrigada de cultivo intensivo al sureste de Argentina, basados en medidas in situ de la vegetación, a partir de: i) datos multiespectrales de S2; ii) datos radar de S1; y iii) la sinergia S1 & S2. Para abordar la problemática planteada, se desarrollaron en primer lugar, modelos de estimación del índice de área foliar, del contenido de clorofila de la cubierta vegetal y del contenido de agua del trigo, utilizando una base de datos multitemporal de VBV tomadas in situ, algoritmos de aprendizaje automático, una base de datos de espectros de reflectividad bidireccional de la vegetación simulados con un modelo de transferencia radiativa y datos multiespectrales de S2. Se obtuvieron modelos híbridos de estimación de estas VBV que se ajustaron con alta precisión a los datos de campo y se logró reconstruir con éxito la curva fenológica del cultivo de trigo. En segundo lugar, se implementó un modelo de estimación de LAI basado en datos radar de S1 adquiridos en diferentes geometrías de adquisición. Se probó que la estructura tridimensional de la vegetación cuando es observada desde ángulos de incidencia local diferentes proporciona información muy valiosa que puede ser utilizada para mejorar los modelos existentes. Por último, se desarrolló una estrategia de fusión de datos de S1 & S2 para reconstruir series temporales de VWC. Se aplicaron varios modelos de procesos Gaussianos de salidas múltiples para analizar la correlación cruzada existente, en el dominio de la frecuencia, entre los canales ópticos y radar. La combinación sinérgica de datos radar y ópticos mostró ser un novedoso enfoque para abordar el monitoreo de variables biofísicas del trigo en regiones intensamente cultivadas con frecuente nubosidad

Geo-Spatial Analysis in Hydrology

Geo-spatial analysis has become an essential component of hydrological studies to process and examine geo-spatial data such as hydrological variables (e.g., precipitation and discharge) and basin characteristics (e.g., DEM and land use land cover). The advancement of the data acquisition technique helps accumulate geo-spatial data with more extensive spatial coverage than traditional in-situ observations. The development of geo-spatial analytic methods is beneficial for the processing and analysis of multi-source data in a more efficient and reliable way for a variety of research and practical issues in hydrology. This book is a collection of the articles of a published Special Issue Geo-Spatial Analysis in Hydrology in the journal ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information. The topics of the articles range from the improvement of geo-spatial analytic methods to the applications of geo-spatial analysis in emerging hydrological issues. The results of these articles show that traditional hydrological/hydraulic models coupled with geo-spatial techniques are a way to make streamflow simulations more efficient and reliable for flood-related decision making. Geo-spatial analysis based on more advanced methods and data is a reliable resolution to obtain high-resolution information for hydrological studies at fine spatial scale