Remote Sensing Monitoring of Conservation Tillage
A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Remote Sensing in Agriculture and Vegetation".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 8
Special Issue Editors
Interests: crop; remote sensing
Interests: imaging spectroscopy; vegetation properties retrieval; FLEX; vegetation fluorescence; optical remote sensing; radiative transfer models; retrieval methods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: agronomic applications of Earth observation; remote sensing; digital image processing; geoinformatics; spectroscopy; precision agriculture; UAV; crops; irrigation; soil
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Conservation tillage plays a pivotal role in improving soil health, minimizing erosion, enhancing water retention, and contributing to climate-resilient agriculture. Nevertheless, conventional field-based assessments of tillage practices are often labor-intensive, time-consuming, and limited in spatial coverage. Remote sensing-based monitoring of conservation tillage has become an essential tool for evaluating the effectiveness and sustainability of agricultural practices across diverse agroecosystems.
This Special Issue seeks to highlight recent advancements in remote sensing technologies and analytical approaches for monitoring conservation tillage across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Particular emphasis is placed on the integration of multi-source remote sensing data for detecting and quantifying tillage-induced surface changes. We invite contributions focused on the development of innovative tillage indices, spatiotemporal image fusion techniques, and the application of machine learning or deep learning models to estimate crop residue cover and tillage intensity. Studies exploring methodological innovations, large-scale applications, or synergistic frameworks that combine remote sensing data with in-situ observations are especially encouraged. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, residue mapping, tillage classification, and monitoring of conservation tillage.
Articles may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- Novel remote sensing techniques for conservation tillage identification.
- Tillage classification using optical and radar data.
- Crop residue cover estimation using new tillage indices.
- Image fusion techniques for tillage monitoring.
- Machine learning and deep learning models for tillage practices mapping.
- Case studies of conservation tillage in different agro-ecological zones.
- Integration of remote sensing data with farm management systems.
- Remote sensing monitoring of crop growth for different tillage practices.
Dr. Jia Du
Dr. Jochem Verrelst
Dr. Thomas Alexandridis
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- conservation tillage
- crop residue cover
- remote sensing
- tillage classification
- spatiotemporal fusion
- machine learning
- sustainable agriculture
- precision farming
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