Estimation of water productivity in winter wheat using the AquaCrop model with field hyperspectral data

Abstract

Water productivity (WP) is a key element of agricultural water management in agricultural irrigated regions. The objectives of this study were: (i) to estimate biomass of winter wheat using spectral indices; (ii) integrate the estimation of biomass data with the AquaCrop model using a lookup table for higher accuracy biomass simulation; (iii) show estimation accuracy of the data assimilation method in yield and WP. Spectral variables and concurrent biomass, yield and WP of samples were acquired at the Xiaotangshan experimental site in Beijing, China, during the 2008/2009, 2009/2010, 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 winter wheat growing seasons. The results showed that all spectral indices had a highly significant relationship with biomass, especially normalized difference matter index, with R2 and RMSE values of 0.84 and 1.43 t/ha, respectively. Simulation of biomass and yield by the AquaCrop model were in good agreement with the measured biomass and yield of winter wheat. The results showed that the data assimilation method (R2 = 0.79 and RMSE = 0.12 kg/m3) could be used to estimate WP. The result indicated that the AquaCrop model could be used to estimate yield and WP with the aid of remote sensing for improving agricultural water resources management.