Estimation of Soil Salt Content and Organic Matter on Arable Land in the Yellow River Delta by Combining UAV Hyperspectral and Landsat-8 Multispectral Imagery

Rapid and large-scale estimation of soil salt content (SSC) and organic matter (SOM) using multi-source remote sensing is of great significance for the real-time monitoring of arable land quality. In this study, we simultaneously predicted SSC and SOM on arable land in the Yellow River Delta (YRD), based on ground measurement data, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) hyperspectral imagery, and Landsat-8 multispectral imagery. The reflectance averaging method was used to resample UAV hyperspectra to simulate the Landsat-8 OLI data (referred to as fitted multispectra). Correlation analyses and the multiple regression method were used to construct SSC and SOM hyperspectral/fitted multispectral estimation models. Then, the best SSC and SOM fitted multispectral estimation models based on UAV images were applied to a reflectance-corrected Landsat-8 image, and SSC and SOM distributions were obtained for the YRD. The estimation results revealed that moderately salinized arable land accounted for the largest proportion of area in the YRD (48.44%), with the SOM of most arable land (60.31%) at medium or lower levels. A significant negative spatial correlation was detected between SSC and SOM in most regions. This study integrates the advantages of UAV hyperspectral and satellite multispectral data, thereby realizing rapid and accurate estimation of SSC and SOM for a large-scale area, which is of great significance for the targeted improvement of arable land in the YRD.

Automated summary

In this study, rapid and large-scale estimation of soil salt content (SSC) and organic matter (SOM) was conducted on arable land in the Yellow River Delta (YRD) using multi-source remote sensing. The integration of UAV hyperspectral and satellite multispectral data enabled the accurate estimation of SSC and SOM for a large-scale area. The results revealed significant correlations and distributions of SSC and SOM in the YRD region.