Production Capacity Evaluation of Farmland Using Long Time Series of Remote Sensing Images

Farmland is a crucial resource for the survival and evolution of humans. The accurate evaluation of farmland production capacity (FPC) is of great significance for planting structure optimization, the improvement of low-yield farmland and sustainable utilization. The objective of this study is to quantitatively evaluate the FPC at the county scale using time series remote sensing (RS) images. Taking winter wheat as a benchmark crop, the relations between annual yield and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were established by a multiple linear regression algorithm. The mean and standard deviations (SD) of the multi-year yield of winter wheat were used to evaluate FPC and its instability using the farmland parcels as the basic unit. The results show that the estimation model for annual winter wheat yield performed best in 2011. The R2 of the modeling sample was 0.93, and the RMSE of the testing sample was 368.1 kg/ha. The FPC grades in the south and north of the study area were relatively high with a good stability, while those in the center were low with poor stability. There was a certain correlation between FPC and soil organic matter (SOM), and the correlation coefficient was 0.525 (p < 0.01). In this study, taking the farmland parcel as a basic unit instead of a pixel, long time series of multi-source RS images with medium resolution were used to monitor the per unit yield of benchmark crops and then evaluate the FPC. This can provide a method for the rapid evaluation of FPC at the county scale.

Automated summary

This study quantitatively evaluated farmland production capacity at the county scale using time series remote sensing images. Winter wheat was used as a benchmark crop, and a model was established to relate annual yield to the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). The results showed that the south and north regions had higher and more stable farmland production capacity compared to the central region. There was also a correlation between farmland production capacity and soil organic matter. The use of farmland parcels as the basic unit and multi-source RS images with medium resolution provided a method for rapid evaluation at the county scale.