Validation of Rapid and Low-Cost Approach for the Delineation of Zone Management Based on Machine Learning Algorithms

Michele Perniola,Stefano Zenobi,Michele Denora,Marco Fiorentini,Roberto Orsini,Luigi Ledda,Paola A Deligios

doi:10.3390/agronomy12010183

Michele Perniola, Stefano Zenobi + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12010183

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Abstract

Proximal soil sensors are receiving strong attention from several disciplinary fields, and this has led to a rise in their availability in the market in the last two decades. The aim of this work was to validate agronomically a zone management delineation procedure from electromagnetic induction (EMI) maps applied to two different rainfed durum wheat fields. The k-means algorithm was applied based on the gap statistic index for the identification of the optimal number of management zones and their positions. Traditional statistical analysis was performed to detect significant differences in soil characteristics and crop response of each management zones. The procedure showed the presence of two management zones at both two sites under analysis, and it was agronomically validated by the significant difference in soil texture (+24.17%), bulk density (+6.46%), organic matter (+39.29%), organic carbon (+39.4%), total carbonates (+25.34%), total nitrogen (+30.14%), protein (+1.50%) and yield data (+1.07 t ha−1). Moreover, six unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight missions were performed to investigate the relationship between five vegetation indexes and the EMI maps. The results suggest performing the multispectral images acquisition during the flowering phenological stages to attribute the crop spatial variability to different soil proprieties.

Highlights

The current social context requires an increase in food production, improvement of its quality characteristics and greater environmental sustainability in the management of agricultural systems
In line with the results described, it is possible to underline that in the ZH approach for both sites with reference to production, even considering the N (UA) and N (VRT) treatments, a significant difference is highlighted between zone c with respect to zones a b
We showed that the correlation between the vegetation index (VI) and the resistivity map depends strongly on the phenological and developmental stage of the durum wheat

Summary

Introduction

The current social context requires an increase in food production, improvement of its quality characteristics and greater environmental sustainability in the management of agricultural systems. On the 1 June 2018, the European Commission set goals for the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for beyond 2020, focusing on the contribution of innovation and sustainability of crop production in Italy (through Regional Agricultural Policies), as for the rest of Europe (EIP-AGRI partnership). Uniform management of fields does not consider spatial variability, and it is not the most effective management strategy. Soil is the temporal result of several factors such as the atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere and hydrosphere [3]. Such variability may act over different spatial and temporal scales and affects crop yield both quantitatively and qualitatively [4]

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