Mapping and monitoring rice areas using multisensor multitemporal Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) imagery

In the Philippines, rice is cultivated on 2.76 million ha, much of which is cropped twice a year. However, production is not enough to meet increasing domestic demand. In support of the country's rice self-sufficiency plan, IRRI and PhilRice formed an integrated project funded by the Department of Agriculture. Part of this project is the mapping and assessment of rice areas in the country. In partnership with sarmap, a Swiss company, we are developing a dedicated processing chain that enables the mapping of rice areas, detection of emergence, and monitoring of growth for the whole season. This poster presents the processing chain and the first rice mapping results from this public/private research partnership. Information that will be generated from this project is crucial in rice importation decisions and in prioritizing research and extension activities such as the dissemination of location-specific technologies.
15 Dec. 2010

4 Jan. 2011

Mapping and monitoring of rice areas We are using multitemporal remote sensing images acquired by different SAR sensors to adequately capture flooding, planting, and emergence dates in major rice-producing provinces of the Philippines (Table 1, Fig. 1). sarmap has developed a dedicated rice mapping software, RICEscape, to automate SAR data preprocessing while still allowing operators to fine-tune the mapping process based on their location-specific knowledge of rice ecologies (Fig. 2).
Table 1. Description of SAR data used.
Ban d Cosmo SkyMed (CSK) X ENVISAT ASAR C ALOS-PALSAR L
aHH

31 Jan. 2011

23 March 2011

Sensor

Wavelengt Spatial Revisit Polarizationa h (cm) resolution (m) period (d) 3.0 3 to 15 4 HH 5.6 15 to 25 35 HH 23.6 8 to 15 46 HH-HH/HV

Fig. 3. Actual condition during field visits.

Fig. 4. Preliminary rice map derived from multitemporal CSK and PALSAR images over Nueva Ecija.
100 8

CSK

ASAR

PALSAR

80 60 40 20 0
1 Dec 2010 28 Dec 2010 18 Jan 2011 31 Jan 2011 1 Mar 2011

Tillering Milking Harvest Plant height, cm Backscatter, dB

10 11 12 13 14 15
23 Mar 2011

Fig. 5. Temporal signature of rice derived from multitemporal images and rice growth stage based on actual field observations in Nueva Ecija. C A D B Fig. 1. The top 20 rice-growing provinces (yellow) and monitoring sites (red dots) (A), and coverage of acquired SAR images (B, C, D) for the 2011 dry season.
Standard format original SAR products Multilooking + filtering Geometric calibration Radiometric calibration Radiometric normalization Filtering

Preprocessing

(Digital elevation model)

DEM

Area (000 ha) 46.0

Preprocessed SAR image Classification Validation using ground truth data SAR-derived rice map Mask generation

38.1

59.3

Rice map generation

Fig. 6. Comparison of BSWM 1980 (A), SAR-derived 2011 dry season only (B), and MODISderived 2009 (C) rice maps highlighting the changes in rice areas (A vs. B, C) and difference in resolution (B vs. C).

Conclusions and further work

Multitemporal and multisensor acquisitions are required to properly capture, at the country level, the critical stages, such as flooding and planting dates, that vary widely in time and space. We are working to further improve the rice mapping methodology. Rice ecologies vary across the Philippines and the methodology must accommodate this variation. When completed, this project will provide the first SAR-based high-spatialresolution map of rice areas covering the major rice-producing provinces in the Philippines. With the launch of Sentinel-1A and 1B (ESA C-band missions) planned for 201213, the temporal acquisition frequency (revisiting cycle, 7 days) will enable continuous rice growth monitoring at the country level. C-band data from Sentinel will also be provided free of charge.

Fig. 2. General procedure for rice mapping in RICEscape.

Preliminary findings
Planting dates vary widely across the Philippines, highlighting the importance of acquiring multitemporal images for monitoring rice areas. Flooding, planting, and crop emergence (Fig. 3) can be detected using multitemporal SAR images and used to map rice areas (Fig. 4). Planting dates can be mapped using SAR temporal signatures (Fig. 5). The rice area detected with RICEscape compares favorably with the rice area depicted in the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) rice maps (Fig. 6).

Jeny Raviz,1 Eduardo Jimmy Quilang,2 Massimo Barbieri,3 Elmer Alosnos,2 Sonia Asilo,1 Gina Balleras,2 Airene Claire Baradas,2 Artemio Corpuz,2 Jovino de Dios,2 Rona Dollentas,2 Eddie Dupitas,2 Noel Ganotisi,2 Francesco Holecz,3 Alice Laborte,1 Mary Rose Mabalay,2 Juanito Maloom,2 Aileen Maunahan,1 Jean Rochelle Mirandilla,2 Andrew Nelson,1 Arnel Rala,1 Gilbert Romarez,2 Albert Christian Suer,2 Belen Tabudlong,2 Frenciso Varquez,2 and Joana Rose Vergara2
1International

Rice Research Institute, Los Baos, Laguna, Philippines, 2Philippine Rice Research Institute, Science City of Muoz, Nueva Ecija, Philippines, 3sarmap, Cascine di Barico, CH 6989 Purasca, Switzerland

Backscatter (dB) C

Planting

Plant height (cm)

= radar signal is emitted and received in the horizontal plane, HV = radar signal is emitted in the horizontal plane and received in the vertical plane.