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Agriculture

Institute of Plant Sciences Details Research in Precision Agriculture

2012 APR 19 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "A methodology to estimate water status of palm trees from aerial thermal images was developed. Deficit irrigation of 80% in three drip-irrigated date-palm plots in the northern Dead Sea region was manipulated during the winter of 2007 and 2008," scientists writing in the journal Precision Agriculture report.

"An uncooled thermal camera was used for extensive aerial imaging to detect palm trees and pure-canopy pixels by using only aerial thermal images. An automatic procedure, based on watershed segmentation analysis, was developed which enabled detection of all palm trees in the thermal images. Two new methods were developed to select palm trees and pure pixels within them: basin-based and pixel-based. From the temperatures of pure-canopy pixels, significant differences were found between palm trees under commercial and deficit irrigation regimes, in all three plots. Automated detection of canopy, based on aerial thermal images, is a key step towards commercial mapping of within-plot water-status variability," wrote Y. Cohen and colleagues, Institute of Plant Sciences.

The researchers concluded: "A protocol, based on the developed methodology, was suggested for mapping water status variability in a palm plot, and for irrigation scheduling."

Cohen and colleagues published their study in Precision Agriculture (Use of aerial thermal imaging to estimate water status of palm trees. Precision Agriculture, 2012;13(1):123-140).

Additional information can be obtained by contacting Y. Cohen, Agr Res Organization, Inst Plant Sci, IL-50250 Bet Dagan, Israel.

The publisher of the journal Precision Agriculture can be contacted at: Springer, Van Godewijckstraat 30, 3311 Gz Dordrecht, Netherlands.

Keywords: City:Bet Dagan, Country:Israel, Region:Asia