Monitoring the Plant Density of Cotton with Remotely Sensed Data

PDC (Plant Density of Cotton) was an essential parameter for estimating the cotton yield and developing the zone-management measurements. This paper proposed a new method to retrieve PDC from the satellite remote sensing data. The thirteen fields of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) (total 630 hm) were selected as the study area, where the sowing date, emergence date, and PDC were investigated. Based on the investigation data the linear models to estimate PDC are established using EVI and DEVI respectively. The results indicated that the difference of seedling size caused by the emergence time decreased the estimation accuracy of PDC. To improve the estimation accuracy the partition functions were established in terms of sowing date. DEVI is capable of reducing the influence of soil background significantly and it can bring the monitoring time forward from June 9 to May 24 in this research. The results indicated that the optimal time monitoring PDC would be from squaring to full-flowering of cotton growing period. A demonstration to monitor PDC was taken on June 9 in the 148 farm of XPCC. It can be concluded that the emergence time and the non-cotton background were the main factors affecting the monitoring accuracy of PDC, and the partition function with the emergence time could improve the estimation accuracy, and DEVI could make the monitoring time forward, and the optimal monitoring time was from the squaring stage to the full-flowering stage. This research provides an efficient, rapid and intact way to monitor PDC, and it is significant for operational application at a regional scale.