Monitoring sugarcane and waterlogging with a multi-sensor approach for sustainable agriculture

Abstract

Satellite sensors have been
promoted widely as a technology to monitor crop canopies to encourage
sustainable agriculture. Different remote sensing technologies are able
to detect crop stress and water shortages, with a special emphasis on
water stress. Improving water and crop productivity goes hand in hand.
Moreover, crop stress resulting from waterlogging leads to suboptimal
crop productivity. However, this has so far received little attention in
literature and, consequently, technological development. This is
surprising because approximately twenty percent of the global
agricultural land suffers from the consequences of waterlogging and
secondary soil salinization.

In this study we focus on an
irrigated sugarcane plantation in southern Mozambique burdened by
waterlogging. We show how Sentinel-1 backscatter and Planet NDVI can be
used to monitor sugarcane development. Our results demonstrate
Sentinel-1 backscatter is able to monitor sucrose development and, in
addition, how waterlogging influences the radar signals in different
growth stages. Consequently, we show the potential to monitor sugarcane
development and waterlogging simultaneously.