
UAV-based multiple sensors for enhanced data fusion and nitrogen monitoring in winter wheat across growth seasons
- Author
- Jingjing Wang, Wentao Wang, Suyi Liu, Xin Hui, Haohui Zhang, Haijun Yan and Wouter Maes (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with multi-sensor remote sensing technologies provide an efficient approach for mapping spatial and temporal variations in vegetation traits, enabling advancements in precision monitoring and modeling. This study’s objective was to analyze UAV multiple sensors’ performance in monitoring winter wheat chlorophyll content (SPAD), plant nitrogen accumulation (PNA), and N nutrition index (NNI). A two-year field experiment with five N fertilizer treatments was carried out. The color indices (CIs, from RGB sensors), vegetation indices (VIs, from multispectral sensors), and temperature indices (TIs, from thermal sensors) were derived from the collected images. XGBoost (extreme gradient boosting) was applied to develop the models, using 2021 data for training and 2022 data for testing. The excess green minus excess red index, red green ratio index, and hue (from CIs), and green normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference red-edge index, and normalized difference vegetation index (from VIs), showed high correlations with three N indicators. At the pre-heading stage, the best performing CIs correlated better than the VIs; this was reversed in the post-heading stage. CIs outperformed VIs in SPAD (CIs: R2(coefficient of determination) = 0.66, VIs: R2 = 0.61), PNA (CIs: R2 = 0.68, VIs: R2 = 0.64), and NNI (CIs: R2 = 0.64, VIs: R2 = 0.60) in the pre-heading stage, whereas VI-based models achieved slightly higher accuracies in post-heading and all stages compared to CIs. Models built with CIs + VIs significantly improved the models’ performance compared to single-sensor models. Adding TIs to CIs and CIs + VIs further improved the models’ performance slightly, especially at the post-heading stage, resulting in the best model performance with three sensors. These findings highlight the effectiveness of UAV systems in estimating wheat N and establish a framework for integrating RGB, multispectral, and thermal sensors to enhance model accuracy in precision vegetation monitoring
- Keywords
- UAV-based remote sensing, multi-sensor integration, multispectral, RGB, thermal, vegetation monitoring, XGBoost modeling, VEGETATION INDEXES, CHLOROPHYLL CONTENT, CANOPY TEMPERATURE, USE EFFICIENCY, WATER-STRESS, AREA INDEX, YIELD, LEAF, AGRICULTURE, IRRIGATION
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Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01JSMSE0NN4XG3WYK4AMYHMRY4
- MLA
- Wang, Jingjing, et al. “UAV-Based Multiple Sensors for Enhanced Data Fusion and Nitrogen Monitoring in Winter Wheat across Growth Seasons.” REMOTE SENSING, vol. 17, no. 3, 2025, doi:10.3390/rs17030498.
- APA
- Wang, J., Wang, W., Liu, S., Hui, X., Zhang, H., Yan, H., & Maes, W. (2025). UAV-based multiple sensors for enhanced data fusion and nitrogen monitoring in winter wheat across growth seasons. REMOTE SENSING, 17(3). https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17030498
- Chicago author-date
- Wang, Jingjing, Wentao Wang, Suyi Liu, Xin Hui, Haohui Zhang, Haijun Yan, and Wouter Maes. 2025. “UAV-Based Multiple Sensors for Enhanced Data Fusion and Nitrogen Monitoring in Winter Wheat across Growth Seasons.” REMOTE SENSING 17 (3). https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17030498.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Wang, Jingjing, Wentao Wang, Suyi Liu, Xin Hui, Haohui Zhang, Haijun Yan, and Wouter Maes. 2025. “UAV-Based Multiple Sensors for Enhanced Data Fusion and Nitrogen Monitoring in Winter Wheat across Growth Seasons.” REMOTE SENSING 17 (3). doi:10.3390/rs17030498.
- Vancouver
- 1.Wang J, Wang W, Liu S, Hui X, Zhang H, Yan H, et al. UAV-based multiple sensors for enhanced data fusion and nitrogen monitoring in winter wheat across growth seasons. REMOTE SENSING. 2025;17(3).
- IEEE
- [1]J. Wang et al., “UAV-based multiple sensors for enhanced data fusion and nitrogen monitoring in winter wheat across growth seasons,” REMOTE SENSING, vol. 17, no. 3, 2025.
@article{01JSMSE0NN4XG3WYK4AMYHMRY4, abstract = {{Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with multi-sensor remote sensing technologies provide an efficient approach for mapping spatial and temporal variations in vegetation traits, enabling advancements in precision monitoring and modeling. This study’s objective was to analyze UAV multiple sensors’ performance in monitoring winter wheat chlorophyll content (SPAD), plant nitrogen accumulation (PNA), and N nutrition index (NNI). A two-year field experiment with five N fertilizer treatments was carried out. The color indices (CIs, from RGB sensors), vegetation indices (VIs, from multispectral sensors), and temperature indices (TIs, from thermal sensors) were derived from the collected images. XGBoost (extreme gradient boosting) was applied to develop the models, using 2021 data for training and 2022 data for testing. The excess green minus excess red index, red green ratio index, and hue (from CIs), and green normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference red-edge index, and normalized difference vegetation index (from VIs), showed high correlations with three N indicators. At the pre-heading stage, the best performing CIs correlated better than the VIs; this was reversed in the post-heading stage. CIs outperformed VIs in SPAD (CIs: R2(coefficient of determination) = 0.66, VIs: R2 = 0.61), PNA (CIs: R2 = 0.68, VIs: R2 = 0.64), and NNI (CIs: R2 = 0.64, VIs: R2 = 0.60) in the pre-heading stage, whereas VI-based models achieved slightly higher accuracies in post-heading and all stages compared to CIs. Models built with CIs + VIs significantly improved the models’ performance compared to single-sensor models. Adding TIs to CIs and CIs + VIs further improved the models’ performance slightly, especially at the post-heading stage, resulting in the best model performance with three sensors. These findings highlight the effectiveness of UAV systems in estimating wheat N and establish a framework for integrating RGB, multispectral, and thermal sensors to enhance model accuracy in precision vegetation monitoring}}, articleno = {{498}}, author = {{Wang, Jingjing and Wang, Wentao and Liu, Suyi and Hui, Xin and Zhang, Haohui and Yan, Haijun and Maes, Wouter}}, issn = {{2072-4292}}, journal = {{REMOTE SENSING}}, keywords = {{UAV-based remote sensing,multi-sensor integration,multispectral,RGB,thermal,vegetation monitoring,XGBoost modeling,VEGETATION INDEXES,CHLOROPHYLL CONTENT,CANOPY TEMPERATURE,USE EFFICIENCY,WATER-STRESS,AREA INDEX,YIELD,LEAF,AGRICULTURE,IRRIGATION}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{3}}, pages = {{27}}, title = {{UAV-based multiple sensors for enhanced data fusion and nitrogen monitoring in winter wheat across growth seasons}}, url = {{http://doi.org/10.3390/rs17030498}}, volume = {{17}}, year = {{2025}}, }
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