Application of airborne imagery for mapping water stress and scheduling irrigation for vegetable crops

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Water scarcity due to climate change, drought, and rising water demands from non-agricultural sectors, isthreatening food production. Innovations in irrigation water management are required to optimize agriculturalwater use in water stressed regions of Canada. This will not only sustain increased crop yields, but will alsoreduce nutrient leaching and contamination of soil and water. Conventional irrigation water applications relymainly on soil moisture measurements, which are labor intensive, and also difficult to accurately representheterogeneity of soil and crop parameters at large spatial scales. However, remotely sensed plant stressindicators, based on the visible and near-infrared spectral regions, have the advantage of high spatial andspectral resolutions, and account for spatial and temporal variability of crops and soil. The proposed research isgeared towards the adoption of remotely sensed images, acquired from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, as apotential method to precisely determine irrigation applications. The project focuses on the use of advanceddata and image analysis techniques to provide more precise information about plant water status for real-timeirrigation water management that would be cost-effective and commercially available to farmers. Thisinnovative research would generate new scientific knowledge on the use of remotely sensed, real-time data toschedule irrigation and advance variable rate irrigation technology. The industrial partner is Huron Geomatics,a wholly owned Canadian aerial mapping company based in Southern Ontario.