Remote sensing based estimation system for winter wheat yield in North China Plain

Abstract

This paper presents the applications of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data and Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) time series data for winter wheat production estimation in North China Plain. The key techniques are described systematically about winter wheat yield estimation system, including automatically extracting wheat area, simulating and monitoring wheat growth situation, building wheat unit yield model of large area and forecasting wheat production. Pattern recognition technique was applied to extract sown area using TM data. Temporal NDVI (Normal Division Vegetation Index) profiles were produced from 8–12 times AVHRR data during wheat growth season dynamically. A remote sensing yield model for large area was developed based on greenness accumulation, temperature and greenness change rate. On the basis of the solution of key problems, an operational system for winter wheat yield estimation in North China Plain using remotely sensed data was established and has operated since 1993, which consists of 4 subsystems, namely databases management, image processing, models bank management and production prediction system. The accuracy of wheat production prediction exceeded 96 per cent compared with on the spot measurement.