GRASS COVER, TREE DENSITY, AND LEAF DEVELOPMENT OF MEDITERRANEAN ORCHARDS FROM HIGH RESOLUTION DATA

The study focused on Mediterranean orchards and aimed to explore different remote sensing data (Sentinel 2 data (2016–2023), 1 Pleiades image (2022) and the extraction of Google-satellite-hybrid images (GSH,2017)) to compute key variables affecting water requirements such as tree age and d...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: P. Rouault, D. Courault, G. Pouget, F. Flamain, R. Lopez-Lozano, C. Doussan, M. Debolini, M. McCabe
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2023-12-01
Series:The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences
Online Access:https://isprs-archives.copernicus.org/articles/XLVIII-1-W2-2023/1531/2023/isprs-archives-XLVIII-1-W2-2023-1531-2023.pdf
Description
Summary:The study focused on Mediterranean orchards and aimed to explore different remote sensing data (Sentinel 2 data (2016–2023), 1 Pleiades image (2022) and the extraction of Google-satellite-hybrid images (GSH,2017)) to compute key variables affecting water requirements such as tree age and density per plot, leaf development, the inter-row management. Surveys were conducted on 22 farms where accurate information on agricultural practices was collected. The results have shown that a thresholding on the NDVI Sentinel 2 in the summer period allowed the identification of young orchards with an accuracy of 98%. The analysis of temporal profiles of FAPAR allowed the identification of key phenological stages such as flowering and fruit set. Supervised classification was employed to separate grassed and non-grassed plots using three spectral bands of Sentinel 2. Classifications performed from GSH images gave more accurate results (81% well classified) compared with Sentinel 2 (79%) and Pleiades (57%) when identifying grassed plots. The methods presented in this study propose methods easily accessible based on free-to-download data, making them applicable in diverse orchard contexts.
ISSN:1682-1750
2194-9034