Comparing the spectral settings of the new generation broad and narrow band sensors in estimating biomass of native grasses grown under different management practices

Abstract

The challenge of assessing and monitoring the influence of rangeland management practices on grassland productivity has been hampered in southern Africa, due to the lack of cheap earth observation facilities. This study, therefore, sought to evaluate the capability of the newly launched Sentinel 2 multispectral imager (MSI) data, in relation to Hyperspectral infrared imager (HyspIRI) data in estimating grass biomass subjected to different management practices, namely, burning, mowing and fertilizer application. Using sparse partial least squares regression (SPLSR), results showed that HyspIRI data exhibited slightly higher grass biomass estimation accuracies (RMSE = 6.65 g/m2, R2 = 0.69) than Sentinel 2 MSI (RMSE = 6.79 g/m2, R2 = 0.58) across all rangeland management practices. Student t-test results then showed that Sentinel 2 MSI exhibited a comparable performance to HyspIRI in estimating the biomass of grasslands under burning, mowing and fertilizer application. In comparing the RMSEs derived using wave bands and vegetation indices of HyspIRI and Sentinel, no statistically significant differences were exhibited (α = 0.05). Sentinel (Bands 5, 6 and 7) and HyspIRI (Bands 730 nm, 740 nm, 750 nm, 710 nm), as well as their derived vegetation indices, yielded the highest predictive accuracies. These findings illustrate that the accuracy of Sentinel 2 MSI data in estimating grass biomass is acceptable when compared with HyspIRI. The findings of this work provide an insight into the prospects of large-scale grass biomass modeling and prediction, using cheap and readily available multispectral data.