EFFECT OF WEATHER VARIABLES ON ARECANUT PALMS (ARECA CATECHU L.)

The remote sensing extraction of large areas of arecanut (Areca catechu L.) planting plays an important role in investigating the distribution of arecanut planting area and the subsequent adjustment and optimization of regional planting structures. Satellite imagery has previously been used to investigate and monitor the agricultural and forestry vegetation in Hainan. However, the monitoring accuracy is affected by the cloudy and rainy climate of this region, as well as the high level of land fragmentation. In this paper, we used PlanetScope imagery at a 3 m spatial resolution over the Hainan arecanut planting area to investigate the high-precision extraction of the arecanut planting distribution based on feature space optimization. First, spectral and textural feature variables were selected to form the initial feature space, followed by the implementation of the random forest algorithm to optimize the feature space. Arecanut planting area extraction models based on the support vector machine (SVM), BP neural network (BPNN), and random forest (RF) classification algorithms were then constructed. The overall classification accuracies of the SVM, BPNN, and RF models optimized by the RF features were determined as 74.82%, 83.67%, and 88.30%, with Kappa coefficients of 0.680, 0.795, and 0.853, respectively. The RF model with optimized features exhibited the highest overall classification accuracy and kappa coefficient. The overall accuracy of the SVM, BPNN, and RF models following feature optimization was improved by 3.90%, 7.77%, and 7.45%, respectively, compared with the corresponding unoptimized classification model. The kappa coefficient also improved. The results demonstrate the ability of PlanetScope satellite imagery to extract the planting distribution of arecanut. Furthermore, the RF is proven to effectively optimize the initial feature space, composed of spectral and textural feature variables, further improving the extraction accuracy of the arecanut planting distribution. This work can act as a theoretical and technical reference for the agricultural and forestry industries.

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The Influence of a Natural UV Absorber (Areca catechu) on the UV Protection and Antimicrobial Properties of Silk and Nylon Fabrics

Fibers and Polymers ◽

10.1007/s12221-021-9950-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 22 (2) ◽

pp. 382-386

Author(s):

Shekh Md. Mamun Kabir ◽

Avik Kumar Dhar ◽

Joonseok Koh

Keyword(s):

Antimicrobial Properties ◽

Uv Protection ◽

Uv Absorber ◽

Areca Catechu

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Evaluation of NASA POWER Reanalysis Products to Estimate Daily Weather Variables in a Hot Summer Mediterranean Climate

Agronomy ◽

10.3390/agronomy11061207 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 1207

Author(s):

Gonçalo C. Rodrigues ◽

Ricardo P. Braga

Keyword(s):

Wind Speed ◽

Bias Correction ◽

Goodness Of Fit ◽

Mediterranean Climate ◽

Weather Data ◽

Coefficient Of Determination ◽

Mean Bias Error ◽

Bias Error ◽

Weather Variables ◽

Weather Stations

This study aims to evaluate NASA POWER reanalysis products for daily surface maximum (Tmax) and minimum (Tmin) temperatures, solar radiation (Rs), relative humidity (RH) and wind speed (Ws) when compared with observed data from 14 distributed weather stations across Alentejo Region, Southern Portugal, with a hot summer Mediterranean climate. Results showed that there is good agreement between NASA POWER reanalysis and observed data for all parameters, except for wind speed, with coefficient of determination (R2) higher than 0.82, with normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) varying, from 8 to 20%, and a normalized mean bias error (NMBE) ranging from –9 to 26%, for those variables. Based on these results, and in order to improve the accuracy of the NASA POWER dataset, two bias corrections were performed to all weather variables: one for the Alentejo Region as a whole; another, for each location individually. Results improved significantly, especially when a local bias correction is performed, with Tmax and Tmin presenting an improvement of the mean NRMSE of 6.6 °C (from 8.0 °C) and 16.1 °C (from 20.5 °C), respectively, while a mean NMBE decreased from 10.65 to 0.2%. Rs results also show a very high goodness of fit with a mean NRMSE of 11.2% and mean NMBE equal to 0.1%. Additionally, bias corrected RH data performed acceptably with an NRMSE lower than 12.1% and an NMBE below 2.1%. However, even when a bias correction is performed, Ws lacks the performance showed by the remaining weather variables, with an NRMSE never lower than 19.6%. Results show that NASA POWER can be useful for the generation of weather data sets where ground weather stations data is of missing or unavailable.

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