Abstract
Rubber (Hevea brasiliensis) is a tropical tree crop cultivated for the industrial production of latex. The trees are tall, perennial and long-lived, and are typically grown in plantations. In most rubber-producing countries, smallholders account for more than 85% of plantation area. Traditional practices mean that it can be difficult to monitor rubber plantations for management purposes. To overcome issues associated with monitoring traditional practices, remote sensing approaches have been successfully applied in this field. However, information on this is lacking. Therefore, this study aims to document the current status, history, development and prospects for remote sensing applications in rubber plantations by using the PRISMA framework. The review focuses on the application of optical remote sensing data in rubber. In this paper, we discuss the current role of remote sensing on specific subject areas, namely mapping, change detection, stand age estimation, carbon and biomass assessment, leaf area index (LAI) prediction and disease detection. In addition, we elaborate on the benefits gained and challenges faced while adapting this technology. These include the availability and free access to satellite imagery as the greatest benefit and the presence of clouds as one of the toughest challenges. Finally, we highlighted four potential areas where future work can be done: (1) Advancements in remote sensing data, (2) algorithm enhancements, (3) emerging processing platforms, and (4) application to less studied subject areas. This paper gives insight into strengthening the potential of remote sensing for delivering efficient and long-term services for rubber plantations.
Highlights
The rubber tree, or Hevea brasiliensis sp. is a major tree crop cultivated for natural rubber production
The results indicated that the Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) model gives the most accurate (RMSE = 0.31) prediction compared to the stepwise multiple linear regression (SMLR) model when validating with ground data
This paper presents an overview of optical remote sensing applications to the study of rubber plantations
Summary
The rubber tree, or Hevea brasiliensis sp. is a major tree crop cultivated for natural rubber production. Is a major tree crop cultivated for natural rubber production. It is mainly grown in tropical areas and has an economic lifespan of 30 to 35 years [1]. It occupies more than 11 million ha of agricultural land globally. Natural rubber is important to the global economy, being used as a raw material for more than 40,000 industrial and non-industrial products [3]. The production of natural rubber in 2018 was recorded at 14.33 million tonnes [2]. The major producing countries are Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, China and Malaysia
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