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Predicting vegetation water content in wheat using normalized difference water indices derived from ground measurements

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Abstract

Vegetation water content (VWC) is an important variable for both agriculture and forest fire management. Remote sensing technology offers an instantaneous and non-destructive method for VWC assessment provided we can relate in situ measurements of VWC to spectral reflectance in a reliable way. In this paper, based on radiative transfer models, three new normalized difference water indices (NDWI) are proposed for VWC [fuel moisture content (FMC), and equivalent water thickness (EWT)] estimation, taking both leaf internal structure and dry matter content into account. Reflectance at 1,200, 1,450 and 1,940 nm were selected and normalized with reflectance at 860 nm to establish three water indices, NDWI1200, NDWI1450 and NDWI1940. Good correlations were observed between FMC (R 2 = 0.65–0.80) and EWT (both at the leaf scale, R 2 = 0.75–0.81 for EWTL and at the canopy scale, R 2 = 0.80–0.83 for EWTC) at various stages of wheat crop development.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Prof. Benoit Rivard and Dr. Feng Jilu for language correction of the paper. We also offer our thanks to anonymous reviewers for constructive suggestions. This work was funded by the China’s Special Funds for Major State Basic Research Project (2007CB714406), the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX2-YW-313), and the State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science (KQ060006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100101, Beijing, China

    Chaoyang Wu, Zheng Niu, Quan Tang & Wenjiang Huang

  2. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100039, Beijing, China

    Chaoyang Wu & Quan Tang

  3. National Engineering Research Center for Information Technology in Agriculture, 100089, Beijing, China

    Wenjiang Huang

Authors
  1. Chaoyang Wu
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  2. Zheng Niu
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  3. Quan Tang
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  4. Wenjiang Huang
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Correspondence to Chaoyang Wu.

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Wu, C., Niu, Z., Tang, Q. et al. Predicting vegetation water content in wheat using normalized difference water indices derived from ground measurements. J Plant Res 122, 317–326 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-009-0215-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-009-0215-y

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