Use of Remote Sensing Satellite Images in Rice Area Monitoring System of Bangladesh

Abstract

In this work, we developed a satellite-based Boro rice monitoring system which will be capable of collecting data on rice production area of whole Bangladesh along with a graphical statistics of rice production area every season. In this monitoring system, Bangladesh has been divided into 7 regions and the production area of Boro rice for these 7 regions has been calculated using only the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) satellite data. Our system does not require any ground truth data. The principal approach requires remotely detected information from MODIS at 250m250m spatial resolutions gained more than two distinct time periods: sowing season which is from December 1 to January 10 and growing season which is from January 11 to April 10 throughout the year (Boro Seasons). Total of eight years 2008–2015 MODIS data have been accumulated and an improvised Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) threshold of the Boro rice model has been used for rice area extraction. This monitoring system has some features like region-wise and area-wise information, search options, improvement/deterioration analysis, and rice area extraction map view. The rice monitoring system can be used by the Department of Agriculture of Bangladesh or Food ministry for the collection of accurate and up-to-date information on the country's rice production. It will also be able to provide information on Boro rice production readily accessible to decision-makers and government agencies to help respond better during and after natural disasters or in any need. Moreover, we believe that our developments of forecasting the Boro rice yield would be useful for the decision-makers in addressing food security in Bangladesh.