A Meta-Analysis of Remote Sensing Technologies and Methodologies for Crop Characterization

Abstract

Climate change and population growth risk the world’s food supply. Annual crop yield production is one of the most crucial components of the global food supply. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has stressed global food security, production, and supply chains. Using biomass estimation as a reliable yield indicator, space-based monitoring of crops can assist in mitigating these stresses by providing reliable product information. Research has been conducted to estimate crop biophysical parameters by destructive and non-destructive approaches. In particular, researchers have investigated the potential of various analytical methods to determine a range of crop parameters using remote sensing data and methods. To this end, they have investigated diverse sources of Earth observations, including radar and optical images with various spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions. This paper reviews and analyzes publications from the past 30 years to identify trends in crop monitoring research using remote sensing data and tools. This analysis is accomplished through a systematic review of 277 papers and documents the methods, challenges, and opportunities frequently cited in the scientific literature. The results revealed that research in this field had increased dramatically over this study period. In addition, the analyses confirmed that the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) had been the most studied vegetation index to estimate crop parameters. Moreover, this analysis showed that wheat and corn were the most studied crops, globally.

Plant phenotyping relevance

作物の生物物理パラメータ推定に用いるリモートセンシング技術と方法論を体系的にレビューしており、植物形質取得手法が中心である。

Code and data availability

This is a systematic review/meta-analysis of 277 published papers. The authors built an internal literature database in an Excel sheet, but no public phenotype dataset, imagery, analysis code, model, or supplement with such assets is described; no availability statement or repository URL for the authors' database or VO

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