Evaluating Sentinel-2 for Monitoring Drought-Induced Crop Failure in Winter Cereals
Descals, Adrià (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Torres, Karen (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Verger, Aleixandre (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Peñuelas, Josep (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)

Date:	2025
Abstract:	Extreme climate events can threaten food production and disrupt supply chains. For instance, the 2023 drought in Catalonia caused large areas of winter cereals to wilt and die early, yielding no grain. This study examined whether Sentinel-2 can detect total crop losses of winter cereals using ground truth data on crop failure. The methodology explored which Sentinel-2 phenological and greenness variables could best predict three drought impact classes: normal growth, moderate impact, and high impact, where the crop failed to produce grain. The results demonstrate that winter cereals affected by drought exhibit a premature decline in several vegetation indices. As a result, the best predictors for detecting total crop losses were metrics associated with the later stages of crop development. Specifically, the mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for the first half of May showed the highest correlation with drought impact classes (R = 0. 66). This study is the first to detect total crop losses at the plantation level using field data combined with Sentinel-2 imagery. It also offers insights into rapid monitoring methods for crop failure, an event likely to become more frequent as the climate warms.
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Crop failure ; Agricultural drought ; Total crop loss ; Winter cereals ; Sentinel-2
Published in:	Remote sensing (Basel), Vol. 17, Issue 2 (January 2025) , art. 340, ISSN 2072-4292

DOI: 10.3390/rs17020340

13 p, 9.0 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > CREAF (Centre de Recerca Ecològica i d'Aplicacions Forestals)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles