Research

22 pages, 4644 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Early Detection of Rice Leaf Blast Disease Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Remote Sensing: A Novel Approach Integrating a New Spectral Vegetation Index and Machine Learning

by Dongxue Zhao, Yingli Cao, Jinpeng Li, Qiang Cao, Jinxuan Li, Fuxu Guo, Shuai Feng and Tongyu Xu

Agronomy 2024, 14(3), 602; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14030602 - 17 Mar 2024

Viewed by 734

Abstract

Leaf blast is recognized as one of the most devastating diseases affecting rice production in the world, seriously threatening rice yield. Therefore, early detection of leaf blast is extremely important to limit the spread and propagation of the disease. In this study, a [...] Read more.

Leaf blast is recognized as one of the most devastating diseases affecting rice production in the world, seriously threatening rice yield. Therefore, early detection of leaf blast is extremely important to limit the spread and propagation of the disease. In this study, a leaf blast-specific spectral vegetation index RBVI = 9.78

(R_{816} - R_{724})

− 2.08(

ρ_{736} / R_{724}

) was designed to qualitatively detect the level of leaf blast disease in the canopy of a field and to improve the accuracy of early detection of leaf blast by remote sensing by unmanned aerial vehicle. Stacking integrated learning, AdaBoost, and SVM were used to compare and analyze the performance of the RBVI and traditional vegetation index for early detection of leaf blast. The results showed that the stacking model constructed based on the RBVI spectral index had the highest detection accuracy (OA: 95.9%, Kappa: 93.8%). Compared to stacking, the detection accuracy of the SVM and AdaBoost models constructed based on the RBVI is slightly degraded. Compared with conventional SVIs, the RBVI had higher accuracy in its ability to qualitatively detect leaf blast in the field. The leaf blast-specific spectral index RBVI proposed in this study can more effectively improve the accuracy of UAV remote sensing for early detection of rice leaf blast in the field and make up for the shortcomings of UAV hyperspectral detection, which is susceptible to interference by environmental factors. The results of this study can provide a simple and effective method for field management and timely control of the disease. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Imaging and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture Ⅱ)

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21 pages, 11248 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimation of Soil Moisture Content Based on Fractional Differential and Optimal Spectral Index

by Wangyang Li, Youzhen Xiang, Xiaochi Liu, Zijun Tang, Xin Wang, Xiangyang Huang, Hongzhao Shi, Mingjie Chen, Yujie Duan, Liaoyuan Ma, Shiyun Wang, Yifang Zhao, Zhijun Li and Fucang Zhang

Agronomy 2024, 14(1), 184; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14010184 - 15 Jan 2024

Viewed by 800

Abstract

Applying hyperspectral remote sensing technology to the prediction of soil moisture content (SMC) during the growth stage of soybean emerges as an effective approach, imperative for advancing the development of modern precision agriculture. This investigation focuses on SMC during the flowering stage under [...] Read more.

Applying hyperspectral remote sensing technology to the prediction of soil moisture content (SMC) during the growth stage of soybean emerges as an effective approach, imperative for advancing the development of modern precision agriculture. This investigation focuses on SMC during the flowering stage under varying nitrogen application levels and film mulching treatments. The soybean canopy’s original hyperspectral data, acquired at the flowering stage, underwent 0–2-order differential transformation (with a step size of 0.5). Five spectral indices exhibiting the highest correlation with SMC were identified as optimal inputs. Three machine learning methods, namely support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), and back propagation neural network (BPNN), were employed to formulate the SMC prediction model. The results indicate the following: (1) The correlation between the optimal spectral index of each order, obtained after fractional differential transformation, and SMC significantly improved compared to the original hyperspectral reflectance data. The average correlation coefficient between each spectral index and SMC under the 1.5-order treatment was 0.380% higher than that of the original spectral index, with mNDI showing the highest correlation coefficient at 0.766. (2) In instances of utilizing the same modeling method with different input variables, the SMC prediction model’s accuracy follows the order: 1.5 order > 2.0 order > 1.0 order > 0.5 order > original order. Conversely, with consistent input variables and a change in the modeling method, the accuracy order becomes RF > SVM > BPNN. When comprehensively assessing model evaluation indicators, the 1.5-order differential method and RF method emerge as the preferred order differential method and model construction method, respectively. The R² for the optimal SMC estimation model in the modeling set and validation set were 0.912 and 0.792, RMSEs were 0.005 and 0.004, and MREs were 2.390% and 2.380%, respectively. This study lays the groundwork for future applications of hyperspectral remote sensing technology in developing soil moisture content estimation models for various crop growth stages and sparks discussions on enhancing the accuracy of these different soil moisture content estimation models. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Imaging and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture Ⅱ)

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17 pages, 2377 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Monitoring Indicators for Comprehensive Growth of Summer Maize Based on UAV Remote Sensing

by Hao Ma, Xue Li, Jiangtao Ji, Hongwei Cui, Yi Shi, Nana Li and Ce Yang

Agronomy 2023, 13(12), 2888; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13122888 - 24 Nov 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1146

Abstract

Maize is one of the important grain crops grown globally, and growth will directly affect its yield and quality, so it is important to monitor maize growth efficiently and non-destructively. To facilitate the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for maize growth monitoring, [...] Read more.

Maize is one of the important grain crops grown globally, and growth will directly affect its yield and quality, so it is important to monitor maize growth efficiently and non-destructively. To facilitate the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for maize growth monitoring, comprehensive growth indicators for maize monitoring based on multispectral remote sensing imagery were established. First of all, multispectral image data of summer maize canopy were collected at the jointing stage, and meanwhile, leaf area index (LAI), relative chlorophyll content (SPAD), and plant height (VH) were measured. Then, the comprehensive growth monitoring indicators CGMI_CV and CGMI_CR for summer maize were constructed by the coefficient of variation method and the CRITIC weighting method. After that, the CGMI_CV and CGMI_CR prediction models were established by the partial least-squares (PLSR) and sparrow search optimization kernel extremum learning machine (SSA-KELM) using eight typical vegetation indices selected. Finally, a comparative analysis was performed using ground-truthing data, and the results show: (1) For CGMI_CV, the R² and RMSE of the model built by SSA-KELM are 0.865 and 0.040, respectively. Compared to the model built by PLSR, R² increased by 4.5%, while RMSE decreased by 0.3%. For CGMI_CR, the R² and RMSE of the model built by SSA-KELM are 0.885 and 0.056, respectively. Compared to the other model, R² increased by 4.6%, and RMSE decreased by 2.8%. (2) Compared to the models by single indicator, among the models constructed based on PLSR, the CGMI_CR model had the highest R². In the models constructed based on SSA-KELM, the R² of models by the CGMI_CR and CGMI_CV were larger than that of the models by SPAD (R² = 0.837), while smaller than that of the models by LAI (R² = 0.906) and models by VH (R² = 0.902). In summary, the comprehensive growth monitoring indicators prediction model established in this paper is effective and can provide technical support for maize growth monitoring. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Imaging and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture Ⅱ)

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16 pages, 15318 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Semi-Supervised Semantic Segmentation-Based Remote Sensing Identification Method for Winter Wheat Planting Area Extraction

by Mingmei Zhang, Yongan Xue, Yuanyuan Zhan and Jinling Zhao

Agronomy 2023, 13(12), 2868; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13122868 - 22 Nov 2023

Viewed by 771

Abstract

To address the cost issue associated with pixel-level image annotation in fully supervised semantic segmentation, a method based on semi-supervised semantic segmentation is proposed for extracting winter wheat planting areas. This approach utilizes self-training with pseudo-labels to learn from a small set of [...] Read more.

To address the cost issue associated with pixel-level image annotation in fully supervised semantic segmentation, a method based on semi-supervised semantic segmentation is proposed for extracting winter wheat planting areas. This approach utilizes self-training with pseudo-labels to learn from a small set of images with pixel-level annotations and a large set of unlabeled images, thereby achieving the extraction. In the constructed initial dataset, a random sampling strategy is employed to select 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2 proportions of labeled data. Furthermore, in conjunction with the concept of consistency regularization, strong data augmentation techniques are applied to the unlabeled images, surpassing classical methods such as cropping and rotation to construct a semi-supervised model. This effectively alleviates overfitting caused by noisy labels. By comparing the prediction results of different proportions of labeled data using SegNet, DeepLabv3+, and U-Net, it is determined that the U-Net network model yields the best extraction performance. Moreover, the evaluation metrics MPA and MIoU demonstrate varying degrees of improvement for semi-supervised semantic segmentation compared to fully supervised semantic segmentation. Notably, the U-Net model trained with 1/16 labeled data outperforms the models trained with 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2 labeled data, achieving MPA and MIoU scores of 81.63%, 73.31%, 82.50%, and 76.01%, respectively. This method provides valuable insights for extracting winter wheat planting areas in scenarios with limited labeled data. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Imaging and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture Ⅱ)

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22 pages, 6297 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimation of the Total Soil Nitrogen Based on a Differential Evolution Algorithm from ZY1-02D Hyperspectral Satellite Imagery

by Rongrong Zhang, Jian Cui, Wenge Zhou, Dujuan Zhang, Wenhao Dai, Hengliang Guo and Shan Zhao

Agronomy 2023, 13(7), 1842; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13071842 - 12 Jul 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1048

Abstract

Precise fertilizer application in agriculture requires accurate and dependable measurements of the soil total nitrogen (TN) concentration. Henan Province is one of the most important grain-producing areas in China. In order to promote the development of precision agriculture in Henan Province, this study [...] Read more.

Precise fertilizer application in agriculture requires accurate and dependable measurements of the soil total nitrogen (TN) concentration. Henan Province is one of the most important grain-producing areas in China. In order to promote the development of precision agriculture in Henan Province, this study took the high-standard basic farmland construction area in central Henan Province as the research area. Using single-phase images acquired from the ZY1-02D satellite hyperspectral sensor on 28 January 2021 (with a spatial resolution of 30 m × 30 m, a spectral range that covered 400–2500 nm, and a revisit period of 3 days) for spectral reflectance transformation and feature spectral band extraction. Based on multiple representation models, such as multiple linear regression, partial least squares regression, and support vector machine (SVM), all bands, feature bands, feature band combinations, and differential evolution (DE) algorithms were used to extract the secondary characteristic variables of the combination of characteristic bands, which were used as model inputs to estimate the content of TN in the study area. It was found that (1) the spectral reflectance transformation could help to improve the accuracy of prediction by reducing the interference from noise in the model, but the optimal spectral transformation method differed between different models and even between the training and test sets of the same model; (2) the estimation accuracy of the TN content model based on the minimum shrinkage and feature selection operator of the feature band was usually better than that of the full band, the feature combination band contained more effective information related to the TN content, and the combination of the DE algorithm and the SVM model achieved a better estimation accuracy for secondary feature extraction and TN content estimation of the feature combination band; and (3) ZY1-02D hyperspectral satellite data have the potential for the dynamic and non-destructive monitoring of regional TN content. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Imaging and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture Ⅱ)

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15 pages, 5905 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigation of the Detectability of Corn Smut Fungus (Ustilago maydis DC. Corda) Infection Based on UAV Multispectral Technology

by László Radócz, Atala Szabó, András Tamás, Árpád Illés, Csaba Bojtor, Péter Ragán, Attila Vad, Adrienn Széles, Endre Harsányi and László Radócz

Agronomy 2023, 13(6), 1499; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13061499 - 30 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1731

Abstract

Corn smut fungus (Ustilago maydis [DC.] Corda) is a globally widespread pathogen affecting both forage and sweet maize hybrids, with higher significance in sweet maize. Remote sensing technologies demonstrated favorable results for disease monitoring on the field scale. The study focused on [...] Read more.

Corn smut fungus (Ustilago maydis [DC.] Corda) is a globally widespread pathogen affecting both forage and sweet maize hybrids, with higher significance in sweet maize. Remote sensing technologies demonstrated favorable results for disease monitoring on the field scale. The study focused on the changes in vegetation index (VI) values influenced by the pathogen. In this study, four hybrids, two forage maize and two sweet maize hybrids were examined. Artificial infection was carried out at three different doses: a low (2500 sporidium number/mL), medium (5000 sporidium number/mL) and high dose (10,000 sporidium number/mL) with a non-infected control plot for each hybrid. The experimental plots were monitored using a multispectral UAV sensor of five monochrome channels on three different dates, i.e., 7, 14 and 21 days after infection. Five different indices (NDVI, GNDVI, ENDVI, LCI, and NDRE) were determined in Quantum GIS 3.20. The obtained results demonstrated that the infection had a significant effect on the VI values in sweet maize hybrids. A high-dose infection in the Dessert R 73 hybrid resulted in significantly lower values compared to the non-infected hybrids in three indices (NDVI, LCI and GNDVI). In the case of the NOA hybrids, GNDVI and ENDVI were able to show significant differences between the values of the infection levels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Imaging and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture Ⅱ)

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13 pages, 7154 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of UAV RGB Images and Improved PSPNet Network to the Identification of Wheat Lodging Areas

by Jinling Zhao, Zheng Li, Yu Lei and Linsheng Huang

Agronomy 2023, 13(5), 1309; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13051309 - 06 May 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1310

Abstract

As one of the main disasters that limit the formation of wheat yield and affect the quality of wheat, lodging poses a great threat to safety production. Therefore, an improved PSPNet (Pyramid Scene Parsing Network) integrating the Normalization-based Attention Module (NAM) (NAM-PSPNet) was [...] Read more.

As one of the main disasters that limit the formation of wheat yield and affect the quality of wheat, lodging poses a great threat to safety production. Therefore, an improved PSPNet (Pyramid Scene Parsing Network) integrating the Normalization-based Attention Module (NAM) (NAM-PSPNet) was applied to the high-definition UAV RGB images of wheat lodging areas at the grain-filling stage and maturity stage with the height of 20 m and 40 m. First, based on the PSPNet network, the lightweight neural network MobileNetV2 was used to replace ResNet as the feature extraction backbone network. The deep separable convolution was used to replace the standard convolution to reduce the amount of model parameters and calculations and then improve the extraction speed. Secondly, the pyramid pool structure of multi-dimensional feature fusion was constructed to obtain more detailed features of UAV images and improve accuracy. Then, the extracted feature map was processed by the NAM to identify the less significant features and compress the model to reduce the calculation. The U-Net, SegNet and DeepLabv3+ were selected as the comparison models. The results show that the extraction effect at the height of 20 m and the maturity stage is the best. For the NAM-PSPNet, the MPA (Mean Pixel Accuracy), MIoU (Mean Intersection over Union), Precision, Accuracy and Recall is, respectively, 89.32%, 89.32%, 94.95%, 94.30% and 95.43% which are significantly better than the comparison models. It is concluded that NAM-PSPNet has better extraction performance for wheat lodging areas which can provide the decisionmaking basis for severity estimation, yield loss assessment, agricultural operation, etc. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Imaging and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture Ⅱ)

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17 pages, 5277 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Synchronous Retrieval of LAI and Cab from UAV Remote Sensing: Development of Optimal Estimation Inversion Framework

by Fengxun Zheng, Xiaofei Wang, Jiangtao Ji, Hao Ma, Hongwei Cui, Yi Shi and Shaoshuai Zhao

Agronomy 2023, 13(4), 1119; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13041119 - 14 Apr 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1613

Abstract

UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) remote sensing provides the feasibility of high-throughput phenotype nondestructive acquisition at the field scale. However, accurate remote sensing of crop physicochemical parameters from UAV optical measurements still needs to be further studied. For this purpose, we put forward a [...] Read more.

UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) remote sensing provides the feasibility of high-throughput phenotype nondestructive acquisition at the field scale. However, accurate remote sensing of crop physicochemical parameters from UAV optical measurements still needs to be further studied. For this purpose, we put forward a crop phenotype inversion framework based on the optimal estimation (OE) theory in this paper, originating from UAV low-altitude hyperspectral/multispectral data. The newly developed unified linearized vector radiative transfer model (UNL-VRTM), combined with the classical PROSAIL model, is used as the forward model, and the forward model was verified by the wheat canopy reflectance data, collected using the FieldSpec Handheld in Qi County, Henan Province. To test the self-consistency of the OE-based framework, we conducted forward simulations for the UAV multispectral sensors (DJI P4 Multispectral) with different observation geometries and aerosol loadings, and a total of 801 sets of validation data were obtained. In addition, parameter sensitivity analysis and information content analysis were performed to determine the contribution of crop parameters to the UAV measurements. Results showed that: (1) the forward model has a strong coupling between vegetation canopy and atmosphere environment, and the modeling process is reasonable. (2) The OE-based inversion framework can make full use of the available radiometric spectral information and had good convergence and self-consistency. (3) The UAV multispectral observations can support the synchronous retrieval of LAI (leaf area index) and Cab (chlorophyll a and b content) based on the proposed algorithm. The proposed inversion framework is expected to be a new way for phenotypic parameter extraction of crops in field environments and had some potential and feasibility for UAV remote sensing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Imaging and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture Ⅱ)

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18 pages, 1649 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimation of Fv/Fm in Spring Wheat Using UAV-Based Multispectral and RGB Imagery with Multiple Machine Learning Methods

by Qiang Wu, Yongping Zhang, Min Xie, Zhiwei Zhao, Lei Yang, Jie Liu and Dingyi Hou

Agronomy 2023, 13(4), 1003; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13041003 - 29 Mar 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 13492

Abstract

The maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) is a widely used indicator of photosynthetic health in plants. Remote sensing of Fv/Fm using MS (multispectral) and RGB imagery has the potential to enable high-throughput screening of plant health in agricultural and ecological applications. [...] Read more.

The maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) is a widely used indicator of photosynthetic health in plants. Remote sensing of Fv/Fm using MS (multispectral) and RGB imagery has the potential to enable high-throughput screening of plant health in agricultural and ecological applications. This study aimed to estimate Fv/Fm in spring wheat at an experimental base in Hanghou County, Inner Mongolia, from 2020 to 2021. RGB and MS images were obtained at the wheat flowering stage using a Da-Jiang Phantom 4 multispectral drone. A total of 51 vegetation indices were constructed, and the measured Fv/Fm of wheat on the ground was obtained simultaneously using a Handy PEA plant efficiency analyzer. The performance of 26 machine learning algorithms for estimating Fv/Fm using RGB and multispectral imagery was compared. The findings revealed that a majority of the multispectral vegetation indices and approximately half of the RGB vegetation indices demonstrated a strong correlation with Fv/Fm, as evidenced by an absolute correlation coefficient greater than 0.75. The Gradient Boosting Regressor (GBR) was the optimal estimation model for RGB, with the important features being RGBVI and ExR. The Huber model was the optimal estimation model for MS, with the important feature being MSAVI2. The Automatic Relevance Determination (ARD) was the optimal estimation model for the combination (RGB + MS), with the important features being SIPI, ExR, and VEG. The highest accuracy was achieved using the ARD model for estimating Fv/Fm with RGB + MS vegetation indices on the test sets (Test set MAE = 0.019, MSE = 0.001, RMSE = 0.024, R² = 0.925, RMSLE = 0.014, MAPE = 0.026). The combined analysis suggests that extracting vegetation indices (SIPI, ExR, and VEG) from RGB and MS remote images by UAV as input variables of the model and using the ARD model can significantly improve the accuracy of Fv/Fm estimation at flowering stage. This approach provides new technical support for rapid and accurate monitoring of Fv/Fm in spring wheat in the Hetao Irrigation District. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Imaging and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture Ⅱ)

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14 pages, 5439 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identification of Soybean Planting Areas Combining Fused Gaofen-1 Image Data and U-Net Model

by Sijia Zhang, Xuyang Ban, Tian Xiao, Linsheng Huang, Jinling Zhao, Wenjiang Huang and Dong Liang

Agronomy 2023, 13(3), 863; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13030863 - 15 Mar 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1306

Abstract

It is of great significance to accurately identify soybean planting areas for ensuring agricultural and industrial production. High-resolution satellite remotely sensed imagery has greatly facilitated the effective extraction of soybean planting areas but novel methods are required to further improve the identification accuracy. [...] Read more.

It is of great significance to accurately identify soybean planting areas for ensuring agricultural and industrial production. High-resolution satellite remotely sensed imagery has greatly facilitated the effective extraction of soybean planting areas but novel methods are required to further improve the identification accuracy. Two typical planting areas of Linhu Town and Baili Town in Northern Anhui Province, China, were selected to explore the accurate extraction method. The 10 m multispectral and 2 m panchromatic Gaofen-1 (GF-1) image data were first fused to produce training, test, and validation data sets after the min–max standardization and data augmentation. The deep learning U-Net model was then adopted to perform the accurate extraction of soybean planting areas. Two vital influencing factors on the accuracies of the U-Net model, including cropping size and training epoch, were compared and discussed. Specifically, three cropping sizes of 128 × 128, 256 × 256, and 512 × 512 px, and 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 training epochs were compared to optimally determine the values of the two parameters. To verify the extraction effect of the U-Net model, comparison experiments were also conducted based on the SegNet and DeepLabv3+. The results show that U-Net achieves the highest Accuracy of 92.31% with a Mean Intersection over Union (mIoU) of 81.35%, which is higher than SegNet with an improvement of nearly 4% in Accuracy and 10% on mIoU. In addition, the mIoU has been also improved by 8.89% compared with DeepLabv3+. This study provides an effective and easily operated approach to accurately derive soybean planting areas from satellite images. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Imaging and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture Ⅱ)

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13 pages, 3126 KiB

Open AccessArticle

CA-BIT: A Change Detection Method of Land Use in Natural Reserves

by Bin Jia, Zhiyou Cheng, Chuanjian Wang, Jinling Zhao and Ning An

Agronomy 2023, 13(3), 635; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13030635 - 23 Feb 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1300

Abstract

Natural reserves play a leading role in safeguarding national ecological security. Remote sensing change detection (CD) technology can identify the dynamic changes of land use and warn of ecological risks in natural reserves in a timely manner, which can provide technical support for [...] Read more.

Natural reserves play a leading role in safeguarding national ecological security. Remote sensing change detection (CD) technology can identify the dynamic changes of land use and warn of ecological risks in natural reserves in a timely manner, which can provide technical support for the management of natural reserves. We propose a CD method (CA-BIT) based on the improved bitemporal image transformer (BIT) model to realize the change detection of remote sensing data of Anhui Natural Reserves in 2018 and 2021. Resnet34-CA is constructed through the combination of Resnet34 and a coordinate attention mechanism to effectively extract high-level semantic features. The BIT module is also used to efficiently enhance the original semantic features. Compared with the overall accuracy of the existing deep learning-based CD methods, that of CA-BIT is 98.34% on the natural protected area CD datasets and 99.05% on LEVIR_CD. Our method can effectively satisfy the need of CD of different land categories such as construction land, farmland, and forest land. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Imaging and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture Ⅱ)

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16 pages, 3783 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Estimation of Relative Chlorophyll Content in Spring Wheat Based on Multi-Temporal UAV Remote Sensing

by Qiang Wu, Yongping Zhang, Zhiwei Zhao, Min Xie and Dingyi Hou

Agronomy 2023, 13(1), 211; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy13010211 - 10 Jan 2023

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3609

Abstract

Relative chlorophyll content (SPAD) is an important index for characterizing the nitrogen nutrient status of plants. Continuous, rapid, nondestructive, and accurate estimation of SPAD values in wheat after heading stage can positively impact subsequent nitrogen fertilization management strategies, which regulate grain filling and [...] Read more.

Relative chlorophyll content (SPAD) is an important index for characterizing the nitrogen nutrient status of plants. Continuous, rapid, nondestructive, and accurate estimation of SPAD values in wheat after heading stage can positively impact subsequent nitrogen fertilization management strategies, which regulate grain filling and yield quality formation. In this study, the estimation of SPAD of leaf relative chlorophyll content in spring wheat was conducted at the experimental base in Wuyuan County, Inner Mongolia in 2021. Multispectral images of different nitrogen application levels at 7, 14, 21, and 28 days after the wheat heading stage were acquired by DJI P4M UAV. A total of 26 multispectral vegetation indices were constructed, and the measured SPAD values of wheat on the ground were obtained simultaneously using a handheld chlorophyll meter. Four machine learning algorithms, including deep neural networks (DNN), partial least squares (PLS), random forest (RF), and Adaptive Boosting (Ada) were used to construct SPAD value estimation models at different time from heading growth stages. The model’s progress was evaluated by the coefficient of determination (R²), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAPE). The results showed that the optimal SPAD value estimation models for different periods of independent reproductive growth stages of wheat were different, with PLS as the optimal estimation model at 7 and 14 days after heading, RF as the optimal estimation model at 21 days after heading, and Ada as the optimal estimation model at 28 d after heading. The highest accuracy was achieved using the PLS model for estimating SPAD values at 14 d after heading (training set R² = 0.767, RMSE = 3.205, MAPE = 0.060, and R² = 0.878, RMSE = 2.405, MAPE = 0.045 for the test set). The combined analysis concluded that selecting multiple vegetation indices as input variables of the model at 14 d after heading stage and using the PLS model can significantly improve the accuracy of SPAD value estimation, provides a new technical support for rapid and accurate monitoring of SPAD values in spring wheat. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Current Research on Hyperspectral and Multispectral Imaging and Their Applications in Precision Agriculture Ⅱ)

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