Abstract
In oil palm crop, soil fertility is less important than the physical soil characteristics. It is important to have a balance and sufficient soil moisture to sustain high yields in oil palm plantations. However, conventional methods of soil moisture determination are laborious and time-consuming with limited coverage and accuracy. In this research, we evaluated synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and in-situ observations at an oil palm plantation to determine SAR signal sensitivity to oil palm crop by means of water cloud model (WCM) inversion for retrieving soil moisture from L-band HH and HV polarized data. The effects of vegetation on backscattering coefficients were evaluated by comparing Leaf Area Index (LAI), Leaf Water Area Index (LWAI) and Normalized Plant Water Content (NPWC). The results showed that HV polarization effectively simulated backscatter coefficient as compared to HH polarization where the best fit was obtained by taking the LAI as a vegetation descriptor. The HV polarization with the LAI indicator was able to retrieve soil moisture content with an accuracy of at least 80%.
Highlights
Soil moisture content is a critical input variable in a wide variety of scientific studies in the field of agriculture
Leaf Area Index (LAI) for the palm fronds was averaged at 1.845 m2 /m2 where it was seen to increase at every observation date, being 1.748, 1.784 and 2.005 m2 /m2, respectively, during the January, April, and July observations dates
The water cloud model (WCM) was calibrated using NDVI values, fitted to a WCM model by different instances of vegetation descriptors to evaluate the best fit for the model
Summary
Soil moisture content is a critical input variable in a wide variety of scientific studies in the field of agriculture. Soil moisture is an environmental element that connects the. When soil moisture levels are balanced, agricultural yields improve, yield losses due to drought are reduced, and groundwater levels are recharged, ensuring the continuity of rivers and stream flows [1]. Oil palm trees require a reasonably steady high temperature, and continuous precipitation all year. The yield of oil palm is highly dependent on the availability of water during the sex differentiation of its inflorescences, which occurs approximately 28 months before bunch harvest. Soil moisture is critical for optimal production in the oil palm crop [3]. Water is required for cell expansion, whereby it increases
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