Iran-Water Resources Research

Iran-Water Resources Research

Combination of Semi-Empirical Radar Remote Sensing Models for Soil Moisture Retrieval During the Plant Growing Season Based on Machine Learning

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Ph.D. Student of Remote Sensing & GIS, Department of Remote Sensing & GIS, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
2 Associate Professor, Department of Remote sensing & GIS, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
3 Professor, Department of Remote Sensing & GIS, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
4 Professor, Department of Irrigation and Drainage, Faculty of Water Sciences Engineering, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.
5 Head of Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, Research and Training Institute of Sugarcane & By-Products Development Company of Khuzestan Province, Khuzestan, Iran.
Abstract
Soil moisture is one of the most important environmental parameters for water resources management and irrigation planning in agricultural areas. In agricultural areas, most soil moisture retrieval models are unstable in terms of their accuracy and performance during crop growth season. As a result, there is no consensus on which model performs optimally during the agricultural season. This is because of the uncertainties associated with model physics, initial assumptions, input data, vegetation attenuation and soil characteristics. To better deal with these practical concerns, in this research, a simple but effective soil moisture retrieval method has been introduced using a combination of multiple models based on machine learning. Firstly, the semi-empirical water cloud model (WCM) with different vegetation descriptors was calibrated and validated in sugarcane fields for Sentinel-1 backscattering coefficients (VV and VH). For this purpose, soil moisture measurements of sugarcane fields (400 samples in total) during the plant growing season in 2020 were used. The optimization of calculations was done using the generalized regression neural network (GRNN). The results showed that WCMNDWI retrieves soil moisture more accurately than other models in the early stages of sugarcane growth, while WCMVWC and WCMLAI were more accurate in late sugarcane growth stages. The machine learning method by combining models can make full use of the different advantages they offer. Time-series soil moisture retrieval accuracy using the combined method based on GRNN was higher than that of single WCM models. According to the results of the in situ validation for sugarcane fields, with the optimal combination of models, the minimum mean absolute error (MAE) was less than 0.02 m3m-3, the root mean square error (RMSE) was approximately 0.085 m3m-3, and the Pearson’s correlation coefficient (R) was equal to 0.7 for the sugarcane growing season. The findings showed that the proposed method provides a way to select an optimal model for retrieving time-series soil moisture 
Keywords

Subjects


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  • Receive Date 13 February 2024
  • Revise Date 24 April 2024
  • Accept Date 10 May 2024