Evaluation of sum-NDVI values to estimate wheat grain yields using multi-temporal Landsat OLI data

Abstract

Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)-based models have been developed to derive wheat grain yields with multispectral images. In this regard, field measurements and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data were used for two growing seasons to determine the relationships between NDVI and yields. The number of six statistic parameters were calculated from NDVI values to find the best agreement with actual yield data. A comparison of the results showed that sum-NDVI better matched field measurements. To compare the results of NDVI with other vegetation indices, we applied four other vegetation indices. Results indicated that estimation of wheat yields using sum-NDVI values was more accurate than estimation by sum of the four applied vegetation indices values. Also, the investigation of multi-temporal images showed that the critical time to estimate wheat yield using sum-NDVI values was the time that wheat grains were in the milky and maturity stages.

Keywords:

• Landsat OLI
• Sum-NDVI
• Wheat growth stages
• Yield mapping

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.