Drs. A.J.W. de Wit: "Regional crop yield forecasts improve by using satellite observations"

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19 Oct 2007 16:00
Unit: Wageningen University
Location: Aula, building 362, Gen. Foulkesweg 1, Wageningen
Organisation: Wageningen University
Promotor: prof.dr. M.E. Schaepman (Geo-information Science (Remote Sensing))
Co Promotor: Dr.ir. S. de Bruin, Drs. P.J.J.F. Torfs

 Crop yield forecasts for regions and countries are essential for governments, traders and agencies playing a role in food relief. However, crop yields are often difficult to forecast in practice because the effect of drought on crop yield is difficult to estimate. In this thesis it is investigated whether satellite derived estimates of drought can be used to improve yield forecasts when combined with a model that simulates the growth of crops. For winter-wheat in Spain, France, Germany and Italy it was demonstrated that the crop yield forecasts could be improved in 66% of the regions. For maize the results were slightly less successful and the yield forecasts could be improved for 56% of the regions. These results demonstrate that the methods presented in this thesis can contribute to better crop yield forecasts. Moreover, they can be implemented and applied operationally because the availability of satellite data is warranted at least until 2018.

Title Thesis: ""Regional crop yield forecasting using probabilistic crop growth modelling and remote sensing data assimilation"
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