Paddy area estimation in Cauvery Delta Region Using Synthetic Aperture Radar

Abstract

Crop inventory through remote sensing provides timely and precise information compared to the conventional method of area estimation. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) overcomes the problems due to cloud cover during the crop growth period. Paddy crops were distinguished based on SAR backscattering coefficient values. This study was carried out in the Cauvery delta region during samba season 2020-21. MAPscape-RICE is a fully automated software used to process the SAR data and extracted dB values were subjected to the Multi-Temporal feature extraction method for estimating paddy growing areas. Continuous monitoring for crop parameters and validation exercise was done to assess the accuracy of the classified paddy area. Among the four districts, Thanjavur recorded the highest area under paddy of about 122684 ha and followed by Thiruvarur, Mayiladuthurai and Nagapattinam with an area of 119379 ha, 57015 ha and 46250 ha, respectively. A total paddy area of 345328 ha was estimated in the four districts of the Cauvery delta region using VH polarization with an overall accuracy of 93.4 per cent and 0.87 kappa index.