Potential of sentinel 2-derived canopy water content as an indicator of flash drought: Case studies from European cereal crop areas

IF 4.5 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Remote Sensing Applications-Society and Environment Pub Date : 2025-08-01 DOI:10.1016/j.rsase.2025.101690

Zaib Unnisa, Booker Ogutu, Jadunandan Dash

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Flash droughts are concerning due to their rapid onset and intensification by heatwaves and rainfall deficit. This leads to rapid soil moisture depletion, causing crops to desiccate and die faster than in slow droughts, especially during critical crop growth stages, which affects the yield. The early detection of flash droughts is possible through the evaluation of the response of plant biophysical variables to these events. To assess that, this study analysed three crop biophysical variables and vegetation index derived from Sentinel-2 across distinct cereal-growing regions in Europe (ROI-1: Southern Spain; ROI-2: Northern Italy; ROI-3: Eastern Hungary) to evaluate their potential for detecting flash droughts. The Evaporative Stress Index (ESI) was used for detecting the drought onset, intensity, and duration, and the response of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Leaf Area Index (LAI), Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation (fAPAR), and Canopy Water Content (CWC) were compared using spatio-temporal comparison and Pearson correlation for Wheat and Maize crops in Summer 2022 and Spring 2023 droughts. The findings revealed that CWC showed the earliest response to flash drought over irrigated areas of Spain and Italy compared to LAI and fAPAR. During drought, strong correlations between CWC and ESI (wheat and maize) (in ROI 1, r = 0.59 and ROI 2, r = 0.66) reflected a higher degree of conformity in capturing drought. However, the sensitivity of CWC to flash drought varied in the rainfed region, with weaker correlation observed in Eastern Hungary, where r = 0.4, ROI 3. These results show that there is potential in Sentinel 2-based CWC for early detection of flash droughts, particularly in irrigated systems. It can provide reliable and traceable information about crop stress at the onset of flash drought.

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哨兵2衍生的冠层含水量作为突发性干旱指标的潜力：来自欧洲谷物种植区的案例研究

突发性干旱因其迅速发生并因热浪和降雨不足而加剧而令人担忧。这导致土壤水分迅速枯竭，导致作物比缓慢干旱时更快地干燥和死亡，特别是在作物生长的关键阶段，从而影响产量。通过评估植物生物物理变量对这些事件的反应，可以早期发现突发性干旱。为了评估这一点，本研究分析了欧洲不同谷物种植区的三种作物生物物理变量和来自Sentinel-2的植被指数(ROI-1：西班牙南部；ROI-2：意大利北部；ROI-3：匈牙利东部)，以评估它们探测突发性干旱的潜力。利用蒸发胁迫指数（ESI）检测干旱的发生、强度和持续时间，利用时空对比和Pearson相关分析，比较了2022年夏季和2023年春季干旱对小麦和玉米作物归一化植被指数（NDVI）、叶面积指数（LAI）、吸收光合有效辐射（fAPAR）和冠层含水量（CWC）的响应。结果表明，与LAI和fAPAR相比，CWC对西班牙和意大利灌区突发性干旱的响应最早。干旱期间，CWC与ESI（小麦和玉米）之间的强相关性（ROI 1, r = 0.59, ROI 2, r = 0.66）反映了在捕获干旱方面较高的符合性。然而，CWC对突发性干旱的敏感性在雨养地区有所不同，匈牙利东部的相关性较弱，r = 0.4， ROI为3。这些结果表明，基于哨兵2号的CWC具有早期发现突发性干旱的潜力，特别是在灌溉系统中。它可以在突发性干旱开始时提供可靠和可追溯的作物胁迫信息。

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来源期刊

Remote Sensing Applications-Society and Environment Multiple-

CiteScore

8.00

自引率

8.50%

发文量

204

审稿时长

65 days

期刊介绍： The journal ''Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment'' (RSASE) focuses on remote sensing studies that address specific topics with an emphasis on environmental and societal issues - regional / local studies with global significance. Subjects are encouraged to have an interdisciplinary approach and include, but are not limited by: " -Global and climate change studies addressing the impact of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, CO2 emission, carbon balance and carbon mitigation, energy system on social and environmental systems -Ecological and environmental issues including biodiversity, ecosystem dynamics, land degradation, atmospheric and water pollution, urban footprint, ecosystem management and natural hazards (e.g. earthquakes, typhoons, floods, landslides) -Natural resource studies including land-use in general, biomass estimation, forests, agricultural land, plantation, soils, coral reefs, wetland and water resources -Agriculture, food production systems and food security outcomes -Socio-economic issues including urban systems, urban growth, public health, epidemics, land-use transition and land use conflicts -Oceanography and coastal zone studies, including sea level rise projections, coastlines changes and the ocean-land interface -Regional challenges for remote sensing application techniques, monitoring and analysis, such as cloud screening and atmospheric correction for tropical regions -Interdisciplinary studies combining remote sensing, household survey data, field measurements and models to address environmental, societal and sustainability issues -Quantitative and qualitative analysis that documents the impact of using remote sensing studies in social, political, environmental or economic systems