scholarly journals Evaluation of In-Season Management Zones from High-Resolution Soil and Plant Sensors

Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1124
Author(s):  
Martina Corti ◽  
Pietro Marino Gallina ◽  
Daniele Cavalli ◽  
Bianca Ortuani ◽  
Giovanni Cabassi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Stem Elongation ◽  
Vegetation Indices ◽  
Data Sources ◽  
Management Zones ◽  
Operational Conditions ◽  
Wheat Field ◽  
Red Edge

The adoption of precision agriculture has the potential to increase the environmental sustainability of cropping systems as well as farmers’ income. Farmers in transition to precision agriculture need low-input and effective protocols to delineate homogenous management zones to optimize their actions without past knowledge e.g., yield maps. Different approaches have been developed so far, based on the analysis of the within-field variability in crop and soil properties, but procedures were rarely suited for operational conditions. We identified here a low-inputs protocol to map management zones from soil electrical conductivity and/or crop vegetation indices, using a winter wheat field in northern Italy as a pilot case. The reliability of the alternative data sources was evaluated at three crop development stages using a yield map as reference. Red-edge and NIR (NDRE) bands were the most reliable data sources for management zones identification, with 62%, 68%, and 74% of correct classifications at early tillering, stem elongation, and late booting, respectively. Our work identifies a minimum dataset for accurate management zones’ definition and highlights that in-season monitoring based on the red-edge band was able to reliably identify management zones already at early tillering, despite minor differences in crop growth.

Using portable RapidSCAN active canopy sensor for rice nitrogen status diagnosis

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 349-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Lu ◽  
Y. Miao ◽  
W. Shi ◽  
J. Li ◽  
J. Wan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Northeast China ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Stem Elongation ◽  
Vegetation Indices ◽  
Sanjiang Plain ◽  
N Nutrition ◽  
Red Edge ◽  
Edge Based ◽  
On Farm

The objective of this study was to determine how much improvement red edge-based vegetation indices (VIs) obtained with the RapidSCAN sensor would achieve for estimating rice nitrogen (N) nutrition index (NNI) at stem elongation stage (SE) as compared with commonly used normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and ratio vegetation index (RVI) in Northeast China. Sixteen plot experiments and seven on-farm experiments were conducted from 2014 to 2016 in Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China. The results indicated that the performance of red edge-based VIs for estimation of rice NNI was better than NDVI and RVI. N sufficiency index calculated with RapidSCAN VIs (NSI_VIs) (R2=0.43–0.59) were more stable and more strongly related to NNI than the corresponding VIs (R2=0.12–0.38).

scholarly journals Remote and Proximal Sensing Applications for Durum Wheat Nutritional Status Detection in Mediterranean Area

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Marco Fiorentini ◽  
Stefano Zenobi ◽  
Roberto Orsini
Keyword(s):  
Nutritional Status ◽  
Durum Wheat ◽  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
Near Infrared ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Vegetation Indices ◽  
Mediterranean Area ◽  
N Availability ◽  
Proximal Sensing ◽  
Sensing Applications

Combining remote and proximal sensing in agriculture is essential to monitor crop spatial-temporal variability and to provide high-quality prescription maps for the precision agriculture applications. The study showed how different combinations of soil management (no tillage—NT vs. conventional tillage—CT) and nitrogen (N) fertilization levels (0.90 and 180 kg N ha−1) can affect the durum wheat nutritional status and development through vegetation indices computation and proximal sensing tool application. Chlorophyll and N crop content were measured, in addition a proximal sensing tool and multispectral imagery equipped on unmanned aerial vehicle were used. The N input is the key driver for durum wheat development (4.5 ± 0.92 t ha−1 on average), but when it was not provided the NT performed better than CT (2.51 ± 0.22 vs. 1.46 ± 0.28 t ha−1 respectively) in terms of grain yield. This is due to the greater content of organic matter and N availability which characterizes the NT system. The near infrared (NIR) band-based vegetation indices can well detect the durum wheat nutritional status (R2 = 0.70 on average). The showed results can provide an important contribution in the implementation of ago-environmental policies aimed at environmental impact of cereal-based-cropping systems reduction.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Soil Electrical Parameters and Compaction of Sandy Clay Loam Soil

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 114
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Pentoś ◽  
Krzysztof Pieczarka ◽  
Kamil Serwata
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Conductivity ◽  
Magnetic Susceptibility ◽  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
Soil Compaction ◽  
Soil Layer ◽  
Soil Parameters ◽  
Soil Electrical Conductivity ◽  
Electrical Parameters ◽  
Management Zones ◽  
Additional Information

Soil spatial variability mapping allows the delimitation of the number of soil samples investigated to describe agricultural areas; it is crucial in precision agriculture. Electrical soil parameters are promising factors for the delimitation of management zones. One of the soil parameters that affects yield is soil compaction. The objective of this work was to indicate electrical parameters useful for the delimitation of management zones connected with soil compaction. For this purpose, the measurement of apparent soil electrical conductivity and magnetic susceptibility was conducted at two depths: 0.5 and 1 m. Soil compaction was measured for a soil layer at 0–0.5 m. Relationships between electrical soil parameters and soil compaction were modelled with the use of two types of neural networks—multilayer perceptron (MLP) and radial basis function (RBF). Better prediction quality was observed for RBF models. It can be stated that in the mathematical model, the apparent soil electrical conductivity affects soil compaction significantly more than magnetic susceptibility. However, magnetic susceptibility gives additional information about soil properties, and therefore, both electrical parameters should be used simultaneously for the delimitation of management zones.

scholarly journals QVigourMap: A GIS Open Source Application for the Creation of Canopy Vigour Maps

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 952
Author(s):  
Lia Duarte ◽  
Ana Cláudia Teodoro ◽  
Joaquim J. Sousa ◽  
Luís Pádua
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
Vegetation Indices ◽  
Data Interpretation ◽  
Vegetation Monitoring ◽  
Distribution Maps ◽  
Monitoring Process ◽  
Multi Temporal ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Right

In a precision agriculture context, the amount of geospatial data available can be difficult to interpret in order to understand the crop variability within a given terrain parcel, raising the need for specific tools for data processing and analysis. This is the case for data acquired from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), in which the high spatial resolution along with data from several spectral wavelengths makes data interpretation a complex process regarding vegetation monitoring. Vegetation Indices (VIs) are usually computed, helping in the vegetation monitoring process. However, a crop plot is generally composed of several non-crop elements, which can bias the data analysis and interpretation. By discarding non-crop data, it is possible to compute the vigour distribution for a specific crop within the area under analysis. This article presents QVigourMaps, a new open source application developed to generate useful outputs for precision agriculture purposes. The application was developed in the form of a QGIS plugin, allowing the creation of vigour maps, vegetation distribution maps and prescription maps based on the combination of different VIs and height information. Multi-temporal data from a vineyard plot and a maize field were used as case studies in order to demonstrate the potential and effectiveness of the QVigourMaps tool. The presented application can contribute to making the right management decisions by providing indicators of crop variability, and the outcomes can be used in the field to apply site-specific treatments according to the levels of vigour.

scholarly journals Reducing Topdressing N Fertilization with Variable Rates Does Not Reduce Maize Yield

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 8059
Author(s):  
Calogero Schillaci ◽  
Tommaso Tadiello ◽  
Marco Acutis ◽  
Alessia Perego
Keyword(s):  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
Stem Elongation ◽  
Maize Yield ◽  
Application Rate ◽  
N Fertilization ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Growth Monitoring ◽  
Fixed Rate ◽  
Positioning Systems ◽  
Significant Difference

Proximal sensing represents a growing avenue for precision fertilization and crop growth monitoring. In the last decade, precision agriculture technology has become affordable in many countries; Global Positioning Systems for automatic guidance instruments and proximal sensors can be used to guide the distribution of nutrients such as nitrogen (N) fertilization using real-time applications. A two-year field experiment (2017–2018) was carried out to quantify maize yield in response to variable rate (VR) N distribution, which was determined with a proximal vigour sensor, as an alternative to a fixed rate (FR) in a cereal-livestock farm located in the Po valley (northern Italy). The amount of N distributed for the FR (140 kg N ha−1) was calculated according to the crop requirement and the regional regulation: ±30% of the FR rate was applied in the VR treatment according to the Vigour S-index calculated on-the-go from the CropSpec sensor. The two treatments of N fertilization did not result in a significant difference in yield in both years. The findings suggest that the application of VR is more economically profitable than the FR application rate, especially under the hypothesis of VR application at a farm scale. The outcome of the experiment suggests that VR is a viable and profitable technique that can be easily applied at the farm level by adopting proximal sensors to detect the actual crop N requirement prior to stem elongation. Besides the economic benefits, the VR approach can be regarded as a sustainable practice that meets the current European Common Agricultural Policy.

Identification of Agricultural Management Zones Through Clustering Algorithms with Thermal and Multispectral Satellite Imagery

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (Suppl. 1) ◽  
pp. 121-140
Author(s):  
R. B. Arango ◽  
A. M. Campos ◽  
E. F. Combarro ◽  
E. R. Canas ◽  
I. Díaz
Keyword(s):  
Satellite Imagery ◽  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
Clustering Algorithms ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Agricultural Management ◽  
Landsat 8 ◽  
Special Equipment ◽  
Management Zones ◽  
Ndvi Index ◽  
Cost Efficient

Precision Agriculture entails the appropriate management of the inherent variability of soil and crops, resulting in an increase of economic benefits and a reduction of environmental impact. However, site-specific treatments require maps of the soil variability to identify areas of land that share similar properties. In order to produce these maps, we propose a cost-efficient method that combines clustering algorithms with publicly available satellite imagery. The method does not require exploring the parcels with any special equipment or taking samples of the soil for laboratory analysis. The proposed method was tested in a case study for three vineyard parcels with topographical dissimilarities. The study compares different spectral and thermal bands from the Landsat 8 satellite as well as vegetation and moisture indices to determine which one produces the best clustering. The experimental results seem promising for identification of agricultural management zones. The findings suggest that thermal bands produce better clustering than those based on the NDVI index.

scholarly journals Assessing Leaf Biomass of Agave sisalana Using Sentinel-2 Vegetation Indices

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 233
Author(s):  
Ilja Vuorinne ◽  
Janne Heiskanen ◽  
Petri K. E. Pellikka
Keyword(s):  
Near Infrared ◽  
Vegetation Indices ◽  
Fibre Production ◽  
Additive Models ◽  
Leaf Biomass ◽  
Ground Vegetation ◽  
Perennial Crop ◽  
Red Edge ◽  
Agave Sisalana ◽  
Sentinel 2

Biomass is a principal variable in crop monitoring and management and in assessing carbon cycling. Remote sensing combined with field measurements can be used to estimate biomass over large areas. This study assessed leaf biomass of Agave sisalana (sisal), a perennial crop whose leaves are grown for fibre production in tropical and subtropical regions. Furthermore, the residue from fibre production can be used to produce bioenergy through anaerobic digestion. First, biomass was estimated for 58 field plots using an allometric approach. Then, Sentinel-2 multispectral satellite imagery was used to model biomass in an 8851-ha plantation in semi-arid south-eastern Kenya. Generalised Additive Models were employed to explore how well biomass was explained by various spectral vegetation indices (VIs). The highest performance (explained deviance = 76%, RMSE = 5.15 Mg ha−1) was achieved with ratio and normalised difference VIs based on the green (R560), red-edge (R740 and R783), and near-infrared (R865) spectral bands. Heterogeneity of ground vegetation and resulting background effects seemed to limit model performance. The best performing VI (R740/R783) was used to predict plantation biomass that ranged from 0 to 46.7 Mg ha−1 (mean biomass 10.6 Mg ha−1). The modelling showed that multispectral data are suitable for assessing sisal leaf biomass at the plantation level and in individual blocks. Although these results demonstrate the value of Sentinel-2 red-edge bands at 20-m resolution, the difference from the best model based on green and near-infrared bands at 10-m resolution was rather small.

scholarly journals Aboveground Biomass Mapping of Crops Supported by Improved CASA Model and Sentinel-2 Multispectral Imagery

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 2755
Author(s):  
Peng Fang ◽  
Nana Yan ◽  
Panpan Wei ◽  
Yifan Zhao ◽  
Xiwang Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Aboveground Biomass ◽  
Production Management ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Net Primary Productivity ◽  
Vegetation Indices ◽  
Biophysical Parameters ◽  
Edge Information ◽  
Casa Model ◽  
Red Edge ◽  
Biomass Mapping

The net primary productivity (NPP) and aboveground biomass mapping of crops based on remote sensing technology are not only conducive to understanding the growth and development of crops but can also be used to monitor timely agricultural information, thereby providing effective decision making for agricultural production management. To solve the saturation problem of the NDVI in the aboveground biomass mapping of crops, the original CASA model was improved using narrow-band red-edge information, which is sensitive to vegetation chlorophyll variation, and the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation (FPAR), NPP, and aboveground biomass of winter wheat and maize were mapped in the main growing seasons. Moreover, in this study, we deeply analyzed the seasonal change trends of crops’ biophysical parameters in terms of the NDVI, FPAR, actual light use efficiency (LUE), and their influence on aboveground biomass. Finally, to analyze the uncertainty of the aboveground biomass mapping of crops, we further discussed the inversion differences of FPAR with different vegetation indices. The results demonstrated that the inversion accuracies of the FPAR of the red-edge normalized vegetation index (NDVIred-edge) and red-edge simple ratio vegetation index (SRred-edge) were higher than those of the original CASA model. Compared with the reference data, the accuracy of aboveground biomass estimated by the improved CASA model was 0.73 and 0.70, respectively, which was 0.21 and 0.13 higher than that of the original CASA model. In addition, the analysis of the FPAR inversions of different vegetation indices showed that the inversion accuracies of the red-edge vegetation indices NDVIred-edge and SRred-edge were higher than those of the other vegetation indices, which confirmed that the vegetation indices involving red-edge information can more effectively retrieve FPAR and aboveground biomass of crops.

scholarly journals Nondestructive estimation of potato yield using relative variables derived from multi-period LAI and hyperspectral data based on weighted growth stage

Plant Methods ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanjun Luo ◽  
Yingbin He ◽  
Qian Li ◽  
Weihua Jiao ◽  
Yaqiu Zhu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Precision Agriculture ◽  
Growth Stage ◽  
Estimation Error ◽  
Potato Yield ◽  
Hyperspectral Data ◽  
Single Stage ◽  
Accurate Estimation ◽  
Yield Estimation ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Red Edge

Abstract Background The accurate estimation of potato yield at regional scales is crucial for food security, precision agriculture, and agricultural sustainable development. Methods In this study, we developed a new method using multi-period relative vegetation indices (rVIs) and relative leaf area index (rLAI) data to improve the accuracy of potato yield estimation based on the weighted growth stage. Two experiments of field and greenhouse (water and nitrogen fertilizer experiments) in 2018 were performed to obtain the spectra and LAI data of the whole growth stage of potato. Then the weighted growth stage was determined by three weighting methods (improved analytic hierarchy process method, IAHP; entropy weight method, EW; and optimal combination weighting method, OCW) and the Slogistic model. A comparison of the estimation performance of rVI-based and rLAI-based models with a single and weighted stage was completed. Results The results showed that among the six test rVIs, the relative red edge chlorophyll index (rCIred edge) was the optimal index of the single-stage estimation models with the correlation with potato yield. The most suitable single stage for potato yield estimation was the tuber expansion stage. For weighted growth stage models, the OCW-LAI model was determined as the best one to accurately predict the potato yield with an adjusted R2 value of 0.8333, and the estimation error about 8%. Conclusion This study emphasizes the importance of inconsistent contributions of multi-period or different types of data to the results when they are used together, and the weights need to be considered.

scholarly journals Bacterial Leaf Blight Detection in Rice Crops Using Ground-Based Spectroradiometer Data and Multi-temporal Satellites Images

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Rani Yudarwati ◽  
Chiharu Hongo ◽  
Gunardi Sigit ◽  
Baba Barus ◽  
Budi Utoyo
Keyword(s):  
Image Analysis ◽  
Satellite Image ◽  
Vegetation Indices ◽  
Leaf Blight ◽  
Rice Crop ◽  
Bacterial Leaf Blight ◽  
First Derivative ◽  
Red Edge ◽  
Multi Temporal ◽  
Satellite Image Analysis

This study presents a method for detecting rice crop damage due to bacterial leaf blight (BLB) infestation. Rice crop samples are first analyzed using a handheld spectroradiometer. Then, multi-temporal satellite image analysis is used to determine the most suitable vegetation indices for detecting BLB. The results showed that healthy plants have the highest first derivative value of spectral reflectance of the different categories of diseased plants. Significant difference can be found at approximately 690-770 nm (red edge region) which peak or maximum of the first derivative occurs in healthy crop whereas the highest percentage of BLB showed the lowest in that region. Moreover, visible bands such as blue, green, red, and red edge 1 band show variation of correlation in the early (vegetative) to generative stage then getting high especially in early of harvesting stage than the other bands; the NIR band exhibits a low correlation from the early stage of the growing season whereas the red and red edge bands reveal the highest correlations in the later stage of harvesting. Similarly, the satellite image analysis also reveals that disease incidence gradually increases with increasing age of the plant. The vegetation indices whose formulas consist of blue, green, red, and red edge bands (NGRDI, NPCI, and PSRI) exhibit the highest correlation with BLB infestation. NPCI and PSRI indices indicate that crop stress due to BLB is detected from ripening stage of NPCI then the senescence condition is then detected 12 days later. The coefficients of determination between these indices and BLB are 0.44, 0.63, and 0.67, respectively

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