Validation of a Forage Production Index (FPI) Derived from MODIS fCover Time-Series Using High-Resolution Satellite Imagery: Methodology, Results and Opportunities

Remote Sensing

Antoine Roumiguié³  Anne Jacquin³  Grégoire Sigel²  Hervé Poilvé²  Olivier Hagolle¹  Jean Daydé³  Benjamin Koetz¹  Olivier Arino¹  Sylvia Sylvander¹ 

[1] Université de Toulouse, Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, Ecole d’Ingénieurs de Purpan, UMR 1201 DYNAFOR, France;;Airbus Defence and Space, 5, rue des Satellites, 31400 Toulouse, France; E-Mails:;Université de Toulouse, Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, Ecole d’Ingénieurs de Purpan, UMR 1201 DYNAFOR, France; E-Mails:

关键词: validation;    fCover;    grassland;    index-based insurance;    time series;    SPOT4 Take5;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs70911525

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

An index-based insurance solution was developed to estimate and monitor near real-time forage production using the indicator Forage Production Index (FPI) as a surrogate of the grassland production. The FPI corresponds to the integral of the fraction of green vegetation cover derived from moderate spatial resolution time series images and was calculated at the 6 km × 6 km scale. An upscaled approach based on direct validation was used that compared FPI with field-collected biomass data and high spatial resolution (HR) time series images. The experimental site was located in the Lot and Aveyron departments of southwestern France. Data collected included biomass ground measurements from grassland plots at 28 farms for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 and HR images covering the Lot department in 2013 (n = 26) and 2014 (n = 22). Direct comparison with ground-measured yield led to good accuracy (R² = 0.71 and RMSE = 14.5%). With indirect comparison, the relationship was still strong (R² ranging from 0.78 to 0.93) and informative. These results highlight the effect of disaggregation, the grassland sampling rate, and irregularity of image acquisition in the HR time series. In advance of Sentinel-2, this study provides valuable information on the strengths and weaknesses of a potential index-based insurance product from HR time series images.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.