MAPPING PLANT WATER CONTENT OF WHEAT CROPS BY SATELLITE IMAGERY

Elmetwalli, Adel H.

doi:10.21608/mjae.2014.99602

MAPPING PLANT WATER CONTENT OF WHEAT CROPS BY SATELLITE IMAGERY

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Adel H. Elmetwalli

Assi. Prof., Agric. Eng. Dept., Fac. of Agric., Tanta Univ., Egypt.

10.21608/mjae.2014.99602

Abstract

Mapping plant water content (PWC) by means of earth observation provides the opportunity for understanding and characterising plant water status of crops at a regional scale and enable more efficient irrigation management. The overall aim of this investigation was to assess the potential of ASTER high resolution satellite imagery to map regional PWC variations in irrigated wheat in the Nile Delta of Egypt. Vegetation indices; NDVI, RVI, GNDVI_br and NDWI, were derived from ASTER imagery to relate them to PWC. The results demonstrated that PWC variation of wheat crops can be detected using ASTER high resolution satellite images through the derived vegetation indices. The SWIR radiation of the electromagnetic spectrum centred at 1656nm showed high sensitivity to PWC and thus NDWI based on this region demonstrated the best relationships with PWC (R² = 0.74). The results therefore demonstrated the feasibility of using high resolution satellite images, including ESA’s forthcoming GMES Sentinel 2, to give a better understanding of crop water status at a regional scale.

Keywords

References

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