Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences - Earth Observation Lab

Mapping Agricultural Systems of the Mediterranean

The spatial complexity and strong intra- and inter-annual dynamics of agricultural land in the Mediterranean pose challenges for remote sensing based mapping. This project applies state-of-the-art time series analysis for characterizing managed lands in the wider Mediterranean region, with a focus on large-area mapping of annual croplands, tree plantations, and rangelands based on Landsat and Sentinel-2.

mediterranean acricultural landscape at the sea

The Mediterranean region encompasses diverse agricultural production systems ranging from intensive monocultures for the production of export commodities to family agriculture in complex mosaic landscapes or extensive rangelands. In recent decades, policy changes, growing pressure on land and water resources, as well as changing climate create new social, ecological, and economic challenges. The emerging needs for spatially explicit, timely, and thematically detailed information on land use in Mediterranean agriculture can be met by employing state-of-the-art remote sensing technologies. However, the spatial complexity and the strong intra-, as well as inter-annual dynamics of agricultural land use raise requirements for spatial and temporal detail of remotely sensed data. This project aims at exploring the suitability of dense time series at high spatial resolution for characterizing managed lands in the wider Mediterranean region with a focus on large-area mapping of annual croplands, perennial croplands and tree plantations, as well as rangelands, based on time series of high resolution sensors, such as Landsat and Sentinel-2.

 


Project members