Soil Salinity Prediction Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems under Semi-Arid Environments Irrigated with Salty Non-Conventional Water Resources
The effects of climate change on food security have been unfavorable, particularly in the area of Murcia where there is a water shortage. To satisfy crop needs, farmers combine several irrigation water sources, such as brackish groundwater, desalinated water, reclaimed water, and desalinated water....
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MDPI AG
2022-08-01
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author | Francisco Pedrero Salcedo Pedro Pérez Cutillas Faissal Aziz Marina Llobet Escabias Harm Boesveld Harm Bartholomeus Anas Tallou |
author_facet | Francisco Pedrero Salcedo Pedro Pérez Cutillas Faissal Aziz Marina Llobet Escabias Harm Boesveld Harm Bartholomeus Anas Tallou |
author_sort | Francisco Pedrero Salcedo |
collection | DOAJ |
description | The effects of climate change on food security have been unfavorable, particularly in the area of Murcia where there is a water shortage. To satisfy crop needs, farmers combine several irrigation water sources, such as brackish groundwater, desalinated water, reclaimed water, and desalinated water. Good agricultural and irrigation practices are essential for preventing soil salinization and production losses, and remote sensing might be used to evaluate these practices. This research, performed in an experimental field under greenhouse conditions and in an open-air commercial lettuce field irrigated with non-conventional water sources, determined that the Salinity Index (SI) applied to bare soil is a useful spectral index, providing an R<sup>2</sup> range of 0.40 to 0.83. The other metric used to the bare soil, the Normalized Difference Salinity Index (NDSI), exhibited poor correlations, with R<sup>2</sup> values as high as 0.49. Moreover, the thermal camera did not operate well within the greenhouse, but it performed in the commercial plot, where the canopy temperature was linearly correlated, with an R<sup>2</sup> value of 0.50. The second analyzed vegetative metric, the Normalized Difference Plants Index (NDVI), was exclusively applied to the vegetation and showed minimal relationships with the soil salinity. In the visual evaluation of the maps, the temperature patterns of the canopy were strikingly comparable to the electrical conductivity of the soil, which was not the case for the other analyzed indices. The use of non-conventional moderately saline irrigation water sources negatively impacts the lettuce development by decreasing the fresh head weight and increasing the sodium and chloride leaf concentrations. |
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institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2073-4395 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-10T01:00:52Z |
publishDate | 2022-08-01 |
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series | Agronomy |
spelling | doaj.art-ac98464455924aa9a3aa3cccec13a64b2023-11-23T14:36:03ZengMDPI AGAgronomy2073-43952022-08-01129202210.3390/agronomy12092022Soil Salinity Prediction Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems under Semi-Arid Environments Irrigated with Salty Non-Conventional Water ResourcesFrancisco Pedrero Salcedo0Pedro Pérez Cutillas1Faissal Aziz2Marina Llobet Escabias3Harm Boesveld4Harm Bartholomeus5Anas Tallou6Irrigation Department, Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada del Segura (CEBAS-CSIC) Apdo. 164, Espinardo, 30100 Murcia, SpainDepartment of Geography, Campus de La Merced, 30001 Murcia, SpainLaboratory of Water, Biodiversity & Climate Change, Semlalia Faculty of Sciences, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech 40000, MoroccoWater Resources Management Group, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, 6708 PB Wageningen, The NetherlandsWater Resources Management Group, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, 6708 PB Wageningen, The NetherlandsGeo-Information Science and Remote Sensing, Wageningen University & Research, Droevendaalsesteeg 4, 6708 PB Wageningen, The NetherlandsNational Centre for Research and Study on Water and Energy (CNEREE), Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech 40000, MoroccoThe effects of climate change on food security have been unfavorable, particularly in the area of Murcia where there is a water shortage. To satisfy crop needs, farmers combine several irrigation water sources, such as brackish groundwater, desalinated water, reclaimed water, and desalinated water. Good agricultural and irrigation practices are essential for preventing soil salinization and production losses, and remote sensing might be used to evaluate these practices. This research, performed in an experimental field under greenhouse conditions and in an open-air commercial lettuce field irrigated with non-conventional water sources, determined that the Salinity Index (SI) applied to bare soil is a useful spectral index, providing an R<sup>2</sup> range of 0.40 to 0.83. The other metric used to the bare soil, the Normalized Difference Salinity Index (NDSI), exhibited poor correlations, with R<sup>2</sup> values as high as 0.49. Moreover, the thermal camera did not operate well within the greenhouse, but it performed in the commercial plot, where the canopy temperature was linearly correlated, with an R<sup>2</sup> value of 0.50. The second analyzed vegetative metric, the Normalized Difference Plants Index (NDVI), was exclusively applied to the vegetation and showed minimal relationships with the soil salinity. In the visual evaluation of the maps, the temperature patterns of the canopy were strikingly comparable to the electrical conductivity of the soil, which was not the case for the other analyzed indices. The use of non-conventional moderately saline irrigation water sources negatively impacts the lettuce development by decreasing the fresh head weight and increasing the sodium and chloride leaf concentrations.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/12/9/2022wastewater treatmentremote sensingwater reusereclaimed watermultispectral imagesprecision agriculture |
spellingShingle | Francisco Pedrero Salcedo Pedro Pérez Cutillas Faissal Aziz Marina Llobet Escabias Harm Boesveld Harm Bartholomeus Anas Tallou Soil Salinity Prediction Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems under Semi-Arid Environments Irrigated with Salty Non-Conventional Water Resources Agronomy wastewater treatment remote sensing water reuse reclaimed water multispectral images precision agriculture |
title | Soil Salinity Prediction Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems under Semi-Arid Environments Irrigated with Salty Non-Conventional Water Resources |
title_full | Soil Salinity Prediction Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems under Semi-Arid Environments Irrigated with Salty Non-Conventional Water Resources |
title_fullStr | Soil Salinity Prediction Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems under Semi-Arid Environments Irrigated with Salty Non-Conventional Water Resources |
title_full_unstemmed | Soil Salinity Prediction Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems under Semi-Arid Environments Irrigated with Salty Non-Conventional Water Resources |
title_short | Soil Salinity Prediction Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems under Semi-Arid Environments Irrigated with Salty Non-Conventional Water Resources |
title_sort | soil salinity prediction using remotely piloted aircraft systems under semi arid environments irrigated with salty non conventional water resources |
topic | wastewater treatment remote sensing water reuse reclaimed water multispectral images precision agriculture |
url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/12/9/2022 |
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