Options
Title
'Sugar from Space': Using Satellite Imagery to Predict Cane Yield and Variability
Author(s)
Publication Date
2018
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008
Open Access
Yes
Abstract
Satellite imagery has been demonstrated to be an effective technology for producing accurate pre-harvest estimates in many agricultural crops. For Australian sugarcane, yield forecasting models have been developed from a single date SPOT satellite image acquired around peak crop growth. However, a failure to acquire a SPOT image at this critical growth stage, from continued cloud cover or from competition for the satellite, can prevent an image being captured and therefore a forecast being made for that season. In order to reduce the reliance on a single image capture and to improve the accuracies of the forecasts themselves, time series yield prediction models have been developed for eight sugarcane growing regions using multiple years of free Landsat satellite images. In addition to the forecasting of average regional yield, an automated computational and programming procedure enabling the derivation of crop vigour variability (GNDVI) maps from the freely available Sentinel 2 satellite imagery was developed. These maps, produced for 15 sugarcane growing regions during the 2017 growing season, identify both variations in crop vigour across regions and within every individual crop. These outputs were made available to collaborating mills within each growing region. This paper presents the accuracies achieved from the time series yield forecasting models versus actual 2017 yields for the respective regions, as well as provides an example of the derived mapping outputs.
Publication Type
Conference Publication
Source of Publication
40th Conference of the Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (ASSCT 2018), p. 33-40
Publisher
Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists
Place of Publication
Mackay, Australia
File(s)
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020
Peer Reviewed
Yes
HERDC Category Description
ISBN
9781510862166
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Permanent link to this record