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Monitoring Digestate Application on Agricultural Crops Using Sentinel-2 Satellite Imagery
Summary
Researchers used Sentinel-2 satellite imagery and machine learning (Random Forest, k-NN, Gradient Boosting, neural network) to detect digestate application on agricultural soils in Greece. Models achieved F1-scores up to the mid-80s%, offering a scalable approach to monitor organic fertilizer use and associated microplastic contamination risks.
The widespread use of Exogenous Organic Matter in agriculture necessitates monitoring to assess its effects on soil and crop health. This study evaluates optical Sentinel-2 satellite imagery for detecting digestate application, a practice that enhances soil fertility but poses environmental risks like microplastic contamination and nitrogen losses. In the first instance, Sentinel-2 satellite image time series (SITS) analysis of specific indices (EOMI, NDVI, EVI) was used to characterize EOM’s spectral behavior after application on the soils of four different crop types in Thessaly, Greece. Furthermore, Machine Learning (ML) models (namely Random Forest, k-NN, Gradient Boosting and a Feed-Forward Neural Network), were used to investigate digestate presence detection, achieving F1-scores up to 0.85. The findings highlight the potential of combining remote sensing and ML for scalable and cost-effective monitoring of EOM applications, supporting precision agriculture and sustainability.