Remote sensing in precision farming: real-time monitoring of water and fertilizer requirements of agricultural crops

摘要

The advancements in remote sensing in combination with sensor technology (both passive and active) enable growers to analyze an entire crop field as well as its local features.In particular, changes of actual evapo-transpiration (ET) as a function of water availability can be measured remotely with infrared radiometers. Detection of crop water stress and ET and combining it with the soil water flow model enable rational irrigation timing and application amounts.Nutrient deficiency, and in particular nitrogen deficiency, causes substantial crop losses. This deficiency needs to beidentified immediately. A faster the detection and correction, a lesser the damage to the crop yield.In the present work, to retrieve ET a novel deterministic approach was used which is based on the remote sensing data.The algorithm can automatically provide timely valuable information on plant and soil water status, which can improvethe management of irrigated crops. The solution is capable of bridging between Penman-Monteith ET model andRichards soil water flow model. This bridging can serve as a preliminary tool for expert irrigation system.To support decisions regarding fertilizers the greenness of plant canopies is assessed and quantified by using the spectralreflectance sensors and digital color imaging.Fertilization management can be provided on the basis of sampling and monitoring of crop nitrogen conditions using RS technique and translating measured N concentration in crop to kg/ha N application in the field.