View from above: Farmland infrastructure and its impacts on agricultural landscapes

Abstract

<p>Agricultural landscapes are shaped by the interaction between natural elements and human activities. The development of farmland infrastructure has directly added man-made objects or indirectly altered the production capacity, thereby impacting these landscapes. Earth Observation (EO), primarily satellite imagery, plays a crucial role in observing and monitoring the Earth’s surface and provides a valuable tool for understanding the pattern and structure of agricultural landscapes by offering information on land cover types. However, due to the varied and complex types, shapes, sizes, and functionalities of farmland infrastructure, the approaches and methods for observing its characteristics are limited. This limitation further obstructs the understanding of its impacts on agricultural landscapes. In this paper, we summarize the challenges and opportunities in exploring farmland infrastructure using EO and aim to comprehensively understand the interaction between natural elements and human activities in shaping agricultural landscapes.</p>