Earth observation for monitoring drought stress related crop yield reductions

The main objective is to develop methods to quantify and map drought stress related crop yield reductions, using approaches that are consistent with the current agricultural crop yield statistics.

Climate change has an increasing effect on agriculture. It’s not the gradual increase of annual average temperature that is of relevance here, but rather the increased frequency of extreme weather extremes, such as drought spells of prolonged rainfall.The effect of these climate-change related meteorological events is not explicitly visible in agricultural statistics. Implicitly it is, in the form of lower total yields in specific years and regions.

In order to develop adequate climate mitigation and adaptation policies on the farm, national, and European level, it is paramount to have a good understanding of the current effect of weather extremes on agricultural yields.

In the project we will develop a methodology for a new environmental indicator related to SDG 2 Zero hunger, targeting at sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices.

A fusion of data from multiple sources during the growing season enables estimates on crop biomass, attainable crop yield, plant stress, and other growth related variables per agricultural parcel. In the first phase, this project explores potential data sources in the Netherlands and Finland. In the second phase, we will detect water stress from in-season crop yield predictions.

The project is implemented in cooperation with Statistics Netherlands.

Key words: data science, Earth observation, farm management information systems.

Duration of the project is 24 months.