- 1University of Debrecen, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management, Institute of Water and Environmental Management, Debrecen, Hungary (attilanagy@agr.unideb.hu)
- 2National Laboratory for Water Science and Water Safety University of Debrecen Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Environmental Management Institute of Water and Environmental Management, Debrecen, Hungary
Precision irrigation is one of the fundamental areas of modern agriculture that aims to manage water use more efficiently and sustainably. Continuous monitoring of crop status is essential for the optimisation of irrigation systems, in which spectral-based monitoring methods play a key role. These methods use the spectral properties of the light reflected or absorbed by plants to determine vegetation indices, soil moisture and other plant life parameters. Measurements in the optical and infrared (IR) wavelengths are particularly important as these wavelengths are sensitive to the biochemical and physical properties of plants, such as chlorophyll content, nitrogen levels and water content.
The primary aim of the study is to expand the area of remote sensing in agricultural monitoring using laboratory, field scale proximal sensors, field an UAV imaging by creating a new rapid non-invasive approach for predicting crop health and water demand using spectral data. The study seeks to close the gap where chlorophyll estimations are generally not plant-specific by offering an integrated and refined approach to improve reliability and accessibility in chlorophyll estimation. Besides Integrating VI and thermal imaging with UAV technology can be used in precision agriculture in a number of areas, such as crop monitoring, yield forecasting and optimisation of irrigation water allocation. Furthermore, using several VIs were found to be optimal in crop coefficient estimation, so as to more precise calculation of crop evapotranspiration The ultimate result is giving new approaches to farmers and agricultural stakeholders for more precise and dependable tools for measuring crop evapotranspiration, crop health while promoting sustainability, efficiency, and scalability in irrigation practices.
The research presented in the article was carried out within the framework of the Széchenyi Plan Plus program, with support from the RRF 2.3.1 21 2022 00008 project. This research was supported by the János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
How to cite: Nagy, A., Szabó, A., Nxumalo, G. S., Budayné Bódi, E., and Tamás, J.: Spectral-based monitoring methods to optimise precision irrigation in maize, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9499, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9499, 2025.
