Estimating Soil Moisture Using Vegetation Indices in Cassava Field, Khon Buri District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province

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Kanitta Suttiboriban
Somnimirt Pukngam
Piyapong Tongdeenok

Abstract

Soil moisture studies using vegetation indices were undertaken in a field of cassava, in Khon Buri District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province to investigate variations in the soil moisture. Two methods were used. The first was a gravimetric method involving direct soil moisture measurements that were taken every other month from May 2009 to March 2010. The second method measured moisture at a depth of 0–5 cm from the soil surface using frequency domain reflectometry. The objective was to study the variations in soil moisture at different plant growth stages. A second objective was to use remote sensing data from Landsat 5 TM satellite  imagery to analyze vegetation indices related to soil moisture. Eight vegetation indices were examined—namely, ratio vegetation index (RVI), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), transformed normalized difference vegetation index (TNDVI), infrared percentage vegetation index (IPVI), green normalized difference vegetation index (GNDVI), difference vegetation index (DVI), vegetation index (VI) and normalized difference water index (NDWI). The results showed that the average soil moisture (SM) was 15.07% by volume. The maximum soil moisture in a plant growth stage was 24.98% by volume in the rooting stage and the minimum soil moisture was 7.25% by volume in the soil preparation stage. Soil moisture was estimated based on the remote sensing data using a vegetation index with eight parameters derived by multiple regression analysis. The regression equation that could express plant growth for all plant growth stages was SMAll = 6.301+13.93NDVI-10.62VI+0.06DVI,  (R2= 0.97); with the plant growth equation for the wet period being SMWet = 8.402-14.84VI+13.9NDVI, (R2= 0.91); and for the dry period being SMDry = 6.084+17.46NDVI+0.08DVI-10.66NDWI, (R2 = 0.98), where SMall, SMwet, and SMdry are overall, wet season and dry season soil moisture (% by volume), respectively.


 


Keywords: Soil moisture, Vegetation indices, Cassava field, Nakhon Ratchasima

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How to Cite
Suttiboriban , K. . ., Pukngam, S. . ., & Tongdeenok, P. . (2022). Estimating Soil Moisture Using Vegetation Indices in Cassava Field, Khon Buri District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province. Thai Journal of Forestry, 30(3), 24–32. Retrieved from https://li01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/tjf/article/view/255725
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