In-season crop classification using elements of the Kennaugh matrix derived from polarimetric RADARSAT-2 SAR data

Accurate spatio-temporal classification of crops is of prime importance for in-season crop monitoring. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data provides diverse physical information about crop morphology. In the present work, we propose a day-wise and a time-series approach for crop classification using full-polarimetric SAR data. In this context, the 4 × 4 real Kennaugh matrix representation of a full-polarimetric SAR data is utilized, which can provide valuable information about various morphological and dielectric attributes of a scatterer. The elements of the Kennaugh matrix are used as the parameters for the classification of crop types using the random forest and the extreme gradient boosting classifiers.The time-series approach uses data patterns throughout the whole growth period, while the day-wise approach analyzes the PolSAR data from each acquisition into a single data stack for training and validation. The main advantage of this approach is the possibility of generating an intermediate crop map, whenever a SAR acquisition is available for any particular day. Besides, the day-wise approach has the least climatic influence as compared to the time series approach. However, as time-series data retains the crop growth signature in the entire growth cycle, the classification accuracy is usually higher than the day-wise data.Within the Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM) initiative, in situ measurements collected over the Canadian and Indian test sites and C-band full-polarimetric RADARSAT-2 data are used for the training and validation of the classifiers. Besides, the sensitivity of the Kennaugh matrix elements to crop morphology is apparent in this study. The overall classification accuracies of 87.75% and 80.41% are achieved for the time-series data over the Indian and Canadian test sites, respectively. However, for the day-wise data, a ∼6% decrease in the overall accuracy is observed for both the classifiers.     

Application of S-SEBI model for crop evapotranspiration using Landsat-8 data over parts of North India

Estimation and monitoring of crop evapotranspiration (ET_c) or consumptive water use over large-area holds the key to irrigation management plans and regional drought preparedness. The objective of this study was to estimate ET_c by applying the simplified-surface energy balance index (S-SEBI) model to Landsat-8 data for the 2014–2015 period in parts of North India. An average ET_c was estimated 2.72 and 2.47 in mm day^?1 with 0.22, 0.18 standard deviation and 0.11, 0.07 standard error for Kharif and Rabi crops, respectively. On validation part, a close relationship was observed between S-SEBI derived and scintillometer observed evaporative fraction with 0.85 correlation coefficient and 0.86 agreement index. The statistical analysis also endorses the results accuracy and reliability with 0.026 and 0.602, relative root-mean square errors and model efficiency for wheat crop, respectively. The study showed that normalized difference vegetation index and LST are closely related and serve as a proxy for qualitative representation of ET_c.     

北京延庆葡萄产地高氟地质环境特征研究

北京延庆葡萄产地北侧山区出露大面积花岗岩。岩浆活动频繁,构造发育,特殊地质条件造成土壤存在明显的高氟异常,全氟、水溶氟含量高,部分地下水氟化物含量超过相关标准,是导致当地居民因饮用地下水而患有氟中毒地方病的主要原因。尽管农作物含氟符合相关标准,但高氟地质环境对农作物的含氟量仍具有富集趋势。     

Efficient collection of training data for sub-pixel land cover classification using neural networks

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) are a popular class of techniques for performing soft classifications of satellite images. They have successfully been applied for estimating crop areas through sub-pixel classification of medium to low resolution images. Before a network can be used for classification and estimation, however, it has to be trained. The collection of the reference area fractions needed to train an ANN is often both time-consuming and expensive. This study focuses on strategies for decreasing the efforts needed to collect the necessary reference data, without compromising the accuracy of the resulting area estimates. Two aspects were studied: the spatial sampling scheme (i) and the possibility for reusing trained networks in multiple consecutive seasons (ii). Belgium was chosen as the study area because of the vast amount of reference data available. Time series of monthly NDVI composites for both SPOT-VGT and MODIS were used as the network inputs. The results showed that accurate regional crop area estimation (R² > 80%) is possible using only 1% of the entire area for network training, provided that the training samples used are representative for the land use variability present in the study area. Limiting the training samples to a specific subset of the population, either geographically or thematically, significantly decreased the accuracy of the estimates. The results also indicate that the use of ANNs trained with data from one season to estimate area fractions in another season is not to be recommended. The interannual variability observed in the endmembers’ spectral signatures underlines the importance of using up-to-date training samples. It can thus be concluded that the representativeness of the training samples, both regarding the spatial and the temporal aspects, is an important issue in crop area estimation using ANNs that should not easily be ignored.     

Early-season mapping of crops and cultural operations using very high spatial resolution Pléiades images

The aim of this study was to assess the contribution of very high spatial resolution (VHSR) Pléiades images to both early season crop identification and the mapping of bare soil surface characteristics due to cultural operations. The study region covering 21 km² is located west of the peri-urban territory of the Versailles plain and the Alluets plateau (Yvelines, France). About 100 cropped fields were observed on the ground synchronously with two Pléiades images of 3 and 24 April 2013 and one SPOT4 image of 2 April 2013. The GIS structuring of these field data along with vector information about field boundaries was used for delimitating both training and test zones for the support vector machine classifier with polynomial function kernel (pSVM). The pSVM was computed on the spectral bands and NDVI for both single-date Pléiades and the bi-temporal Pléiades pair. For the single-date classifications of crops, the overall per-pixel accuracy reached 87% for the SPOT4 image of 2 April (6 classes), 79% for the Pléiades image of 3 April (6 classes) and 82% for that of 24 April (7 classes). At the earlier date (2–3 April), the Pléiades image very well discriminated cultural operations (>77%, user’s or producer’s accuracies) as well as fallows and grasslands, while winter cereals and rapeseed were better discriminated by the SPOT4 image winter cereals (>70%, user’s or producer’s accuracies). As Pléiades images revealed within-field spatial variations of early phenological stages of winter cereals that could be critical for adjusting management of zones with delayed development during the growing season, they brought information complementary to multispectral images with high spatial resolution. For the bi-temporal Pléiades image, the overall per-pixel accuracy was about 80% (7 classes), winter crops, grasslands and fallows being very well detected while confusions occurred between spring barley at initial stages (2–3 leaves) and bare soils prepared for other spring crops. Using an additional validation field set covering ∼1/3 of the study area croplands, the crop map resulting from the bi-temporal Pléiades pair achieved correct crop prediction for about 89.7% of the validation fields when considering composite classes for winter cereals and for spring crops. Early-season Pléiades images therefore show a considerable potential for anticipating regional crop patterns and detecting soil tillage operations in spring.     

Determination of the crop row orientations from Formosat-2 multi-temporal and panchromatic images

This paper presents a technique developed for the retrieval of the orientation of crop rows, over anthropic lands dedicated to agriculture in order to further improve estimate of crop production and soil erosion management. Five crop types are considered: wheat, barley, rapeseed, sunflower, corn and hemp. The study is part of the multi-sensor crop-monitoring experiment, conducted in 2010 throughout the agricultural season (MCM’10) over an area located in southwestern France, near Toulouse. The proposed methodology is based on the use of satellite images acquired by Formosat-2, at high spatial resolution in panchromatic and multispectral modes (with spatial resolution of 2 and 8 m, respectively). Orientations are derived and evaluated for each image and for each plot, using directional spatial filters (45° and 135°) and mathematical morphology algorithms. “Single-date” and “multi-temporal” approaches are considered. The single-date analyses confirm the good performances of the proposed method, but emphasize the limitation of the approach for estimating the crop row orientation over the whole landscape with only one date. The multi-date analyses allow (1) determining the most suitable agricultural period for the detection of the row orientations, and (2) extending the estimation to the entire footprint of the study area. For the winter crops (wheat, barley and rapeseed), best results are obtained with images acquired just after harvest, when surfaces are covered by stubbles or during the period of deep tillage (0.27 > R² > 0.99 and 7.15° > RMSE > 43.02°). For the summer crops (sunflower, corn and hemp), results are strongly crop and date dependents (0 > R² > 0.96, 10.22° > RMSE > 80°), with a well-marked impact of flowering, irrigation equipment and/or maximum crop development. Last, the extent of the method to the whole studied zone allows mapping 90% of the crop row orientations (more than 45,000 ha) with an error inferior to 40°, associated to a confidence index ranging from 1 to 5 for each agricultural plot.     

Retrieval of wheat leaf area index from AWiFS multispectral data using canopy radiative transfer simulation

Accurate representation of leaf area index (LAI) from high resolution satellite observations is obligatory for various modelling exercises and predicting the precise farm productivity. Present study compared the two retrieval approach based on canopy radiative transfer (CRT) method and empirical method using four vegetation indices (VI) (e.g. NDVI, NDWI, RVI and GNDVI) to estimate the wheat LAI. Reflectance observations available at very high (56 m) spatial resolution from Advanced Wide-Field Sensor (AWiFS) sensor onboard Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) P6, Resourcesat-1 satellite was used in this study. This study was performed over two different wheat growing regions, situated in different agro-climatic settings/environments: Trans-Gangetic Plain Region (TGPR) and Central Plateau and Hill Region (CPHR). Forward simulation of canopy reflectances in four AWiFS bands viz. green (0.52–0.59 μm), red (0.62–0.68 μm), NIR (0.77–0.86 μm) and SWIR (1.55–1.70 μm) were carried out to generate the look up table (LUT) using CRT model PROSAIL from all combinations of canopy intrinsic variables. An inversion technique based on minimization of cost function was used to retrieve LAI from LUT and observed AWiFS surface reflectances. Two consecutive wheat growing seasons (November 2005–March 2006 and November 2006–March 2007) datasets were used in this study. The empirical models were developed from first season data and second growing season data used for validation. Among all the models, LAI-NDVI empirical model showed the least RMSE (root mean square error) of 0.54 and 0.51 in both agro-climatic regions respectively. The comparison of PROSAIL retrieved LAI with in situ measurements of 2006–2007 over the two agro-climatic regions produced substantially less RMSE of 0.34 and 0.41 having more R² of 0.91 and 0.95 for TGPR and CPHR respectively in comparison to empirical models. Moreover, CRT retrieved LAI had less value of errors in all the LAI classes contrary to empirical estimates. The PROSAIL based retrieval has potential for operational implementation to determine the regional crop LAI and can be extendible to other regions after rigorous validation exercise.     

Elevation,slope aspect and integrated nutrient management effects on crop productivity and soil quality in North-west Himalayas,India

On farm bio-resource recycling has been given greater emphasis with the introduction of conservation agriculture specifically withclimate change scenarios in the mid-hills of the north-west Himalaya region（NWHR）. Under this changing scenario, elevation, slope aspect and integrated nutrient management（INM） may affect significantly soil quality and crop productivity. A study was conducted during 2009-2010 to 2010-2011 at the Ashti watershed of NWHR in a rainfed condition to examine the influence of elevation, slope aspect and integrated nutrient management（INM） on soil resource and crop productivity. Two years of farm demonstration trials indicated that crop productivity and soil quality is significantly affected by elevation, slope aspect and INM. Results showed that wheat equivalent yield（WEY） of improved technology increased crop productivity by -20%-37% compared to the conventional system. Intercropping of maize with cowpea and soybean enhanced yield by another 8%-17%. North aspect and higher elevation increased crop productivity by 15%-25% compared to south aspect and low elevation（except paddy）. Intercropping of maize with cowpea and soybean enhanced yield by another 8%-15%. Irrespective of slope, elevation and cropping system, the WEY increased by -30% in this region due to INMtechnology. The influence of elevation, slope aspect and INM significantly affected soil resources（SQI） and soil carbon change（SCC）. SCC is significantly correlated with SQI for conventional（R2 = 0.65＊）, INM technology（R2 = 0.81＊） and for both technologies（R2 = 0.73＊）. It is recommended that at higher elevation.（except for paddy soils） with a north facing slope, INM is recommended for higher crop productivity; conservation of soil resources is recommended for the mid hills of NWHR; and single values of SCC are appropriate as a SQI for this region.     

Mapping and assessing crop diversity in the irrigated Fergana Valley,Uzbekistan

Crop diversity (e.g. the number of agricultural crop types and the level of evenness in area distribution) in the agricultural systems of arid Central Asia has recently been increased mainly to achieve food security of the rural population, however, not throughout the irrigation system. Site-specific factors that promote or hamper crop diversification after the dissolvent of the Soviet Union have hardly been assessed yet. While tapping the potential of remote sensing, the objective was to map and explain spatial patterns of current crop diversity by the example of the irrigated agricultural landscapes of the Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan. Multi-temporal Landsat and RapidEye satellite data formed the basis for creating annual and multi-annual crop maps for 2010–2012 while using supervised classifications. Applying the Simpson index of diversity (SID) to circular buffers with radii of 1.5 and 5 km elucidated the spatial distribution of crop diversity at both the local and landscape spatial scales. A variable importance analysis, rooted in the conditional forest algorithm, investigated potential environmental and socio-economic drivers of the spatial patterns of crop diversity. Overall accuracy of the annual crop maps ranged from 0.84 to 0.86 whilst the SID varied between 0.1 and 0.85. The findings confirmed the existence of areas under monocultures as well as of crop diverse patches. Higher crop diversity occurred in the more distal parts of the irrigation system and sparsely settled areas, especially due to orchards. In contrast, in water-secure and densely settled areas, cotton-wheat rotations dominated due to the state interventions in crop cultivation. Distances to irrigation infrastructure, settlements and the road network influenced crop diversity the most. Spatial explicit information on crop diversity per se has the potential to support policymaking and spatial planning towards crop diversification. Driver analysis as exemplified at the study region in Uzbekistan can help reaching the declared policy to increase crop diversity throughout the country and even beyond.     

The use of MODIS data to derive acreage estimations for larger fields: A case study in the south-western Rostov region of Russia

Recent developments in remote sensing technology, in particular improved spatial and temporal resolution, open new possibilities for estimating crop acreage over larger areas. Remotely sensed data allow in some cases the estimation of crop acreage statistics independently of sub-national survey statistics, which are sometimes biased and incomplete. This work focuses on the use of MODIS data acquired in 2001/2002 over the Rostov Oblast in Russia, by the Azov Sea. The region is characterised by large agricultural fields of around 75 ha on average. This paper presents a methodology to estimate crop acreage using the MODIS 16-day composite NDVI product. Particular emphasis is placed on a good quality crop mask and a good quality validation dataset. In order to have a second dataset which can be used for cross-checking the MODIS classification a Landsat ETM time series for four different dates in the season of 2002 was acquired and classified. We attempted to distinguish five different crop types and achieved satisfactory and good results for winter crops. Three hundred and sixty fields were identified to be suitable for the training and validation of the MODIS classification using a maximum likelihood classification. A novel method based on a pure pixel field sampling is introduced. This novel method is compared with the traditional hard classification of mixed pixels and was found to be superior.