Estimating fractional cover of crop, crop residue, and soil in cropland using broadband remote sensing data and machine learning

Abstract

The fractional vegetation cover (FVC), crop residue cover (CRC), and bare soil (BS) are three important parameters in vegetation–soil ecosystems, and their correct and timely estimation can improve crop monitoring and environmental monitoring. The triangular space method uses one CRC index and one vegetation index to create a triangular space in which the three vertices represent pure vegetation, crop residue, and bare soil. Subsequently, the CRC, FVC, and BS of mixed remote sensing pixels can be distinguished by their spatial locations in the triangular space. However, soil moisture and crop-residue moisture (SM-CRM) significantly reduce the performance of broadband remote sensing CRC indices and can thus decrease the accuracy of the remote estimation and mapping of CRC, FVC, and BS. This study evaluated the use of broadband remote sensing, the triangular space method, and the random forest (RF) technique to estimate and map the FVC, CRC, and BS of cropland in which SM-CRM changes dramatically. A spectral dataset was obtained using: (1) from a field-based experiment with a field spectrometer; and (2) from a laboratory-based simulation that included four distinct soil types, three types of crop residue (winter-wheat, maize, and rice), one crop (winter wheat), and varying SM-CRM. We trained an RF model [designated the broadband crop-residue index from random forest (CRRF)] that can magnify spectral features of crop residue and soil by using the broadband remote sensing angle indices as input, and uses a moisture-resistant hyperspectral index as the target. The effects of moisture on crop residue and soil were minimized by using the broadband CRRF. Then, the CRRF-NDVI triangular space method was used to estimate and map CRC, FVC, and BS. Our method was validated by using both laboratory- and field-based experiments and Sentinel-2 broadband remote-sensing images. Our results indicate that the CRRF-NDVI triangular space method can reduce the effect of moisture on the broadband remote-sensing of CRC, and may also help to obtain laboratory and field CRC, FVC, and BS. Thus, the proposed method has great potential for application to croplands in which the SM-CRM content changes dramatically.