Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture for Agricultural Purposes

Dear Colleagues,

Water is a key element in agriculture due to its essential role in plant production. The possibility of effective use of water by crops is mainly determined by the retention properties of the soil, thanks to which water can be stored in periods of drought. However, this property depends on many factors, which may additionally be spatially differentiated, even on the scale of small agricultural plots. Information on soil moisture and its variability during the growing season can be used in agriculture in many ways. It is essential for the proper conduct of agro-technical practices on the farm scale, provision of agricultural advisory services in the regions, as well as for the central planning of agricultural policy. Nowadays, modern methods allow for remote assessment of soil moisture and its mapping - in each of the abovementioned spatial scales. Also, forecasted climate changes and already observed water shortages in areas that have, so far, been free from such problems require urgent actions to prevent these adverse phenomena. In this regard, remote sensing is one of the most effective methods of providing data in high spatial resolution, which is highly required in agriculture.

Here, I invite you to publish works that present the use of any non-invasive method (satellite and aerial RS, UAV, field robot, sensors installed on agricultural machines) for direct assessment of soil moisture. Works devoted to the broadly understood modelling and mapping of physical and chemical properties of soil related to its retention properties are also welcome - e.g. mapping of soil mosaic based on the field images, re-scaling of agricultural soil maps based on aerial or satellite images, modelling the coherence of land relief with the variability of soil properties or mapping of soil moisture variation for the purpose of introducing precision farming methods.

In any case, the common denominator of the presented research should be remote sensing of soil moisture and application of this information for agricultural purposes,with respect to the following main topics:

• Multisensory approaches to modelling
• Temporal approach to soil moisture monitoring
• Prediction of soil properties from different platforms
• Soil mapping based on the field image of cultivated plants (canopy)
• New remote sensing technology and image analysis methods with particular emphasis on machine and deep learning

Dr. Rafał Pudełko
Dr. Kamil Szewczak
Guest Editors

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