Monitoring grass nutrients and biomass as indicators of rangeland quality and quantity using random forest modelling and WorldVi

Land use and climate change could have huge impacts on food security and the health of various ecosystems. Leaf nitrogen (N) and above-ground biomass are some of the key factors limiting agricultural production and ecosystem functioning. Leaf N and biomass can be used as indicators of rangeland quality and quantity. Conventional methods for assessing these vegetation parameters at landscape scale level is time consuming and tedious. Remote sensing provides a bird-eye view of the landscape, which creates an opportunity to assess these vegetation parameters over wider rangeland areas. Estimation of leaf N has been successful during peak productivity or high biomass and limited studies estimated leaf N in dry season. The estimation of above-ground biomass has been hindered by the signal saturation problems using conventional vegetation indices. The objective of this study is to monitor leaf N and above-ground biomass as an indicator of rangeland quality and quantity using WorldView-2 sat...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2015
• Where: AEOG
• Authors: Abel Ramoelo, Moses Azong Cho, Renaud Mathieu, S. Madonsela, R. Van De Kerchove, Z. Kaszta, E. Wolff
• Keywords: AEOG 2015, Artificial Intelligence