Rice evapotranspiration estimation and irrigation optimization based on coupling UAV multispectral and thermal infrared imagery with the FAO-56 model

Abstract

Abstract China's rice production and environmental sustainability are largely dependent on the cold black soil region in Northeast China, where precise water and nitrogen management is challenged by water scarcity and high carbon emissions. To overcome the limitations of conventional empirical management and improve the accuracy of evapotranspiration (ET) estimation in controlled-irrigation paddy fields, this study proposes a novel framework integrating unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) multispectral and thermal infrared observations, the FAO-56 dual crop coefficient approach, and the NSGA-II multi-objective optimization model. To parameterize and validate this methodology, field data comprising four lower limit thresholds for controlled irrigation and four nitrogen fertilizer application rates were acquired from the Rice Research Site of Farm 856, Heilongjiang Province, China. This integrated approach was used to systematically evaluate rice growth, water consumption, resource use efficiency, and greenhouse gas emissions under different water-nitrogen treatments. Based on these evaluations, an irrigation optimization scheme was developed using daily crop evapotranspiration (ETc). The results indicated that water, nitrogen, and their interaction significantly affected rice yield, irrigation water use efficiency (IWUE), partial factor productivity of nitrogen (PFPN), and global warming potential (GWP). Treatments W3N2 (80%+155 kg/ha N) and W3N3 (80%+200 kg/ha N) achieved the highest yields, 11,883.51 and 11,436.82 kg/ha, respectively, whereas W2N1 (70%+110 kg/ha N) exhibited the best comprehensive performance, with a TCQ value of 0.65. Among the tested vegetation indices, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) showed the strongest correlation with the basal crop coefficient, with an R²of 0.85. The NDVI -crop water stress index ( CWSI ) coupled model achieved the highest ET c estimation accuracy (R 2 = 0.89, RMSE = 0.39 mm/day), reducing the RMSE by 10.3% compared to the traditional, Multi-objective optimization revealed obvious trade-offs among high yield, water saving, high nitrogen efficiency, and low emissions. Scenario S5 was identified as the optimal solution, with an irrigation amount of 669.94 mm, a nitrogen rate of 117.48 kg/ha, a yield of 11,473.43 kg/ha, and the highest coordination degree of 0.86. These results demonstrate that coupling UAV multispectral and thermal infrared imagery with the FAO-56 model can effectively improve ETc estimation and provide reliable data support for water-nitrogen multi-objective optimization in cold-region rice production.

Plant phenotyping relevance

UAVマルチスペクトル・熱赤外画像とFAO-56を結合し、イネの蒸発散量を推定する手法を開発・検証しており、ETc推定精度も定量評価しているため、単なる灌漑試験ではなく植物状態の計測手法が中心です。

Code and data availability

The supplied blocks describe UAV multispectral/thermal imagery, field measurements, and an NSGA-II/FAO-56 analysis, but contain no public data or code deposit, no authors' repository URL, and no availability statement. The supplementary files (SupplementaryMaterials.docx) are listed on the preprint page but no public,

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