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ARS Home » Plains Area » Temple, Texas » Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #418890
Research Project: Development of Enhanced Tools and Management Strategies to Support Sustainable Agricultural Systems and Water Quality

Location: Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory

Title: Effectiveness of satellite based digital terrain model for estimating crop height from UAV based imagery

Author
item CHATTERJEE, SUMANTRA - Texas Agrilife Research
item BAATH, GURJINDER - Texas Agrilife Research
item RAM SAPKOTA, BALA - Texas A&M University
item Flynn, Kyle
item Smith, Douglas

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/29/2024
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: n/a- abstract only.

Technical Abstract: Crop height is an important biophysical parameter, an early indicator of crop growth, biomass, and season end yield. However, estimating crop height over a large area is a challenging task. While in-field crop height estimation is the most accurate approach, it is labor intense and, thus, expensive. Alternatively, remote sensing-based approaches have the potential to cover a large area cost effectively. While satellite based remote sensing approaches are the least expensive, the spatial resolution is coarser, which can impact accuracy. Unmanned automatic vehicle (UAV) based approaches can provide estimation at much higher resolution. UAV platforms generate 3D point clouds using the surface from motion approach, which is used to generate digital surface model (DSM). To estimate crop height, the surface beneath the crops, the digital terrain model (DTM), is subtracted from the DSM. The primary challenge is in generating the appropriate DTM. In this research the focus was made to test if satellite images can be used to generate DTM.