Assessment of structural and functional characteristics of cropping systems using advanced terrestrial, air-, and spaceborne remote sensing applications

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Wachendorf, since 9/2021
• Subject Area: Plant Cultivation, Plant Nutrition, Agricultural Technology
• Term: from 2016 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 279374797

The overarching objective of the project is to establish remote sensing applications, which allow the assessment of important structural (crop height, crop species) and functional characteristics (yield, quality) of agricultural crops and cropping systems under the soil and climate conditions of Bangalore. Specific objectives are: 1. To calibrate various remote sensors (proximal hyperspectral radiometer; terrestrial high-resolution 3D laser scanner; full-frame hyperspectral imaging spectrometer) based on reference data (biomass, leaf area index, nitrogen and fibre concentration, N nutrition index) from the field experiment at UASB, which comprises a unique variability of most relevant crop species at different levels of water and nitrogen availability; 2. To test the potential of sensor combinations for the assessment of crop characteristics. The main aim is to prove if terrestrial high-resolution 3D laser scanning techniques can compensate saturation effects with spectrometry at higher levels of crop leaf area index; 3. To compare results from terrestrial hyperspectral spectrometry with space-borne multi-spectral imagery and to create hyper-spectral libraries, using an n-dimensional angle to match satellite image pixels to reference spectra, which is expected to improve the performance of space-borne spectrometry; 4. To develop identification and classification procedures for crop species and crop management intensity, which is a prerequisite for the generation of spatio-temporal explicit crop maps of the larger area of Bangalore; 5. To validate the models accuracy using independent data from on-farm experimental fields located on the transects of Bangalore; The development of models and their thorough validation, and the generation of data supporting the performance of space-borne remote sensing will allow C01 to create the methodological basis for a large-scale assessment of cropping systems. Thus, the outcomes of C01 are essential elements for the envisaged assessment of spatio-temporal dynamics of cropping systems along the rural-urban interface in Bangalore and the analysis within FOR2432.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 2432: Social-Ecological Systems in the Indian Rural-Urban Interface: Functions, Scales, and Dynamics of Transition
• International Connection: India
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Sunil Nautiyal; Professor Dr. Rama Rao Nidamanuri
• Ehemaliger Antragsteller: Dr. Thomas Astor, until 9/2021