GEO Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM): JECAM Test Site Name: China - Guangdong 2014 Site Progress Report Team Leader and Members: Prof Wu Bingfang (Leader), Jiratiwan Kruasilp, Zheng Yang, Zhang Miao, Zhang Ning, Zeng Hongwei, Zou Wentao. No report was received for the JECAM site in Guangdong province at Xuwen. However, a report was received for a new site in development in Guangdong province at Taishan, and that report is reproduced here. Project Objectives The original project objectives have not changed. They are: Crop identification and Crop Area Estimation o Object-based Image Analysis and The Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification method o The fusion of SAR and Optical satellite data o Statistical analysis Crop Condition/Stress o NDVI o The ground truth information Yield Prediction and Forecasting o Artificial Neural networks (NN) method Phenological Events and Estimation of Rice biophysical variables o Multiple regression analysis o Leaf Area Index (LAI) measured with hemispherical lens. Site Description Location Upper Left: 22 41'14.05"N, 442 22'12.54"E, Upper Right: 22 41'11.50"N, 441 2'05.55"E Lower Left: 24 14'24.01"N, 442 21'04.44"E, Lower Right: 24 12'20.55"N, 441 4'15.54"E Topography Coastal plain and Mountain
Soils Soils in the study site are mainly lateritic red soil. Drainage class/irrigation Most of the rice cultivated areas have an irrigation system. Crop calendar The predominant crop in the study area is rice, with some sugarcane and vegetables. Sowing of main rice takes place in late March and June, to be harveste d in July. The second rice crop is sown in August and is harvested from late October to November. Field size The size of the rice plots is 5 to 15 hectares. Figure 1: Photos of Taishan (Guangdong) Site
Climate and weather The climate is characterized by relatively high temperatures. The average temperature is 22 o Celsius and the warmest month is July with an average temperature of 28 o Celsius. The coolest month is January, with an average temperature of 14 o Celsius. The rainfall is evenly distributed over the entire year. In summer, the rainfall comes from tropical cyclones. The average amount of rainfall is 2402.8 mm. EO Data Received/Used COSMO-SkyMed : Supplier: Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, ASI SAR 12 scenes April to November 2013 Beam modes/ incidence angles/ spatial resolutions: Wide region/ 22.73 degree/ 30 meters SARscape module has been used to process the Wide region mode of the satellite. RADARSAT-2: Supplier: MDA/CSA SAR 6 scenes March to November 2013 Beam modes/ incidence angles/ spatial resolutions: Fine Quad mode/ FQ10 (29.1 30.9 degrees)/ 8 meters The data sometimes are cancelled if there are the high priority orders. Figure 2: COSMO-SkyMed Image of Taishan Site
Figure 3: RADARSAT-2 Image of Taishan Site RapidEye: MDA Optical 4 scenes June to October 2013 Level 1B It is very difficult to acquire optical satellite imagery because the sky is almost always covered by cloud. In situ Data Field measurement of rice parameters were conducted in parallel to the Satellite data acquisition. The main variables and methods are shown in Table 1. The principle rice cropping systems in the study site is the double rice crop. Sowing of main rice takes place in late March and June, to be harvested in July. The second rice crop is sown in August and is harvested from late October to November. Thus, all the variables were measured once a month from April to November in 2013. Since the study area is located in the coastal area, the sky is almost always covered by cloud. The rainfall is evenly distributed over the entire year. In 2013, a severe tropical storm
intensified into a typhoon and lashed the area with heavy rain. Hence, the water level in the rice field is higher than the normal situation. Figure 4: RapidEye Image of Taishan Site Table 1: In situ Methods at Taishan Site Variables Equipment/Methods LAI LAI 2000 and Hemispherical lens / The digital hemispherical photos analyzed using the CANEYE image analysis. Fractional of vegetation cover Rice variety and transplanting date Biomass Yield Density/canopy height Number of bunch Water level in the field Hemispherical lens/ The digital hemispherical photos analyzed using the CANEYE image analysis. Interview Oven dried and weight Oven dried and weight Tape measured / Count Tape measured / Count Tape measured
Figure 5: In situ Measurements, Taishan Site Collaboration We did not collaborate with other JECAM sites. However, we have participated in the research team from the Geo-informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (Public Organization): GISTDA, Thailand. We proposed that Thai and Chinese researchers jointly perform field survey in both Thailand and China s study. The research shall apply crop condition and production monitoring technology for both study sites. Results The correlation between the RADARSAT-2 backscatter coefficient and biophysical parameters is shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Correlation between RADARSAT-2 Backscatter Coefficient and Biophysical Parameters Polarization Plant height Days after transplanting Leaf area index Biomass HH 0.7810 0.6832 0.6609 0.8403 HV 0.5295 0.4614 0.4371 0.5115 VH 0.5806 0.5055 0.4772 0.4335 VV 0.3934 0.2793 0.2515 0.5901 HH/VV 0.7132 0.7814 0.7793 0.7827 The correlation between backscattering coefficient (db) and LAI is shown in Figure 6. Figure 6: Correlation between Backscatter Coefficient and LAI The RADASAT-2 Quad-polarization data provides the four polarizations HH, HV, VH and VV. Generally, HH-polarization shows the highest stepwise change of all four polarizations. The stepwise change in HV/VH-polarization was greater than VV-polarization. It can be seen from the table that HV and VH polarization has very similar backscattering and is the lowest backscattering value. The correlation between VV-polarization and rice crop age is the lowest. Experience with the COVE Planning Tool We did not use the COVE Planning Tool to order Satellite data. Nonetheless, the tool is quite straightforward to search and preview the information that users are looking for, while an error occurred after addition of multiple products to the Cart. We definitely would like to participate in a short training course to gain an understanding of the functions of the COVE Planning Tool.
Plans for Next Growing Season We hope to carry out field experiments synchronous with some satellites through the study site in 2014. We will order the same type of SAR data and additional optical imagery such as MODIS and Landsat-8. Publications Not yet. For other GEO JECAM site reports or to view summaries and background information please see the 2014 Progress Report that can be found on the annual reports page on the JECAM website here: http://www.jecam.org/?/charter/annual-reports