All FSI Projects

Agricultural applications of multi-year remote sensing

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Researchers

David Lobell
Principal Investigator

While remote sensing has been widely used for broad-scale production forecasts and early famine warning, its potential contribution to agricultural management is still far from realized. This project focuses specifically on novel uses of multi-year remote sensing data to address major issues in national and international agriculture. The research component consists of three main case studies to evaluate and demonstrate the unique capabilities that arise from multiple years of remote observations in agricultural systems: one to evaluate using MODIS measurements from 2000-2008 to map soil salinity in the Red River Valley of the central United States; a second that uses 10 years of Landsat derived wheat yield maps and existing soil databases to evaluate the effect of soil deficiencies on regional production in Mexicali, Mexico; and a third that uses 10 years of Landsat derived yields and planting dates to investigate the impact of management, soil, and climate variability on crop yields in the Punjab region of India.