Thresholds definition in MOD13Q1 and VGT-S10 time series for coffee crop area estimation in Triângulo Mineiro/Alto Paranaíba

Abstract

In the last decades, remote sensing application in agricultural research has intensified to evaluate phenological cycles. Vegetation indices time series have been used to obtain information about the seasonal development of agricultural vegetation on a large scale. The multitemporal approach increases the gain of information coming from orbital images, an important factor for analysis of its spatial distribution. The objective of this study was to test the application of vegetation indices of the MODIS and SPOT-VEGETATION sensors to estimate the areas destined for coffee crops in the Triângulo Mineiro/Alto Paranaíba mesoregion. The results show that the vegetation indices NDVI and EVI of the product MOD13Q1 were more adequate for the estimation of land use over the time domain, especially NDVI. The best minimum threshold varies between 0.39 - 0.42 and the best maximum threshold varies between 0.71 - 0.74. The contribution of this work is that these thresholds can serve as subsidies for land use classification studies on a regional scale and for estimating areas for planting.