Bibliometric and Social Network Analysis on the Use of Satellite Imagery in Agriculture: An Entropy-Based Approach

Satellite imagery is gaining popularity as a valuable tool to lower the impact on natural resources and increase profits for farmers. The purpose of this study is twofold: to mine the scientific literature to reveal the structure of this research domain, and to investigate to what extent scientific results can reach a wider public audience. To meet these two objectives, a Web of Science and a Twitter dataset were retrieved and analysed, respectively. For the academic literature, different performances of various countries were observed: the USA and China resulted as the leading actors, both in terms of published papers and employed researchers. Among the categorised keywords, resolution, Landsat, yield, wheat and multispectral are the most used. Then, analysing the semantic network of the words used in the various abstracts, the different facets of the research in satellite remote sensing were detected. The importance of retrieving meteorological parameters through remote sensing and the broad use of vegetation indexes emerged from these analyses. As emerging topics, classification tasks for land use assessment and crop recognition stand out, alongside the use of hyperspectral sensors. Regarding the interaction of academia with the public, the analysis showed that it is practically absent on Twitter: most of the activity therein stems from private companies advertising their business. This shows that there is still a communication gap between academia and actors from other societal sectors.

Automated summary

Satellite imagery is increasingly used in agriculture to minimize environmental impact and increase profits for farmers. This study analyzes scientific literature and Twitter data to understand the research structure and how scientific results are being disseminated. The analysis reveals that the USA and China are leading countries in this field, and identifies important keywords and emerging research topics. Additionally, it shows a lack of communication between academia and the public, with most Twitter activity coming from private companies.