University of Twente Student Theses
Exploring the Role of Agrobiodiversity on Drought Stress in Coffee Fields in Vietnam with Remote Sensing
Khan, Manuka (2024) Exploring the Role of Agrobiodiversity on Drought Stress in Coffee Fields in Vietnam with Remote Sensing.
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| Abstract: | Vietnam is the second largest coffee producer in the world but is challenged by an increase in the frequency and severity of droughts. At the same time, coffee production is associated with negative impacts on the environment. Various coffee sustainability programs emphasise the inclusion and conservation of biodiversity in coffee fields to improve sustainability. Assessing biodiversity with exclusive use of field visits is challenging. Moreover, it is uncertain whether a correlation between agrobiodiversity and drought stress in coffee plants exists. Using remote sensing is promising as it offers a transparent and efficient method for both biodiversity assess- ments as well as drought stress assessments. Therefore, this thesis uses multi-spectral remote sensing to explore (1) its ability to assess agrobiodiversity in coffee fields with the use of im- age classification, (2) its ability to assess drought stress in coffee plants with NDVI and VCI indices, and (3) if a relationship between agrobiodiversity and droughts can be established with this approach. To validate the remote sensing results, fieldwork was used to (1) collect ground truth points for the image classification, and (2) examine correlations between agrobiodiversity traits and the health of coffee plants. Using the commune Quang Hiep as a case study area, field data revealed that an increase in shade from intercrop or shade trees was highly correlated with an increase in coffee plant health (r=0.70). The image classification results revealed that high-resolution SPOT 6 imagery, with NDVI as vegetation index and a Random Forest classi- fier, can distinguish between high-shade, low-shade, and no coffee areas with an overall accuracy of 80.03%. The drought stress analysis revealed that the NDVI map derived from Sentinel-2 imagery is moderately correlated with the observed health of coffee plants from the field data collection (r=0.34). Lastly, after comparing NDVI and VCI indices for the high-shade and low- shade intercrop coffee classes, results show higher values for high-shade intercrop coffee fields. Thus, healthier vegetation can be found in the areas classified as high-shade intercrop coffee. Although more research on optimal shade levels is necessary, these findings suggest that more shade in coffee fields may reduce drought stress. This research contributes to sustainable coffee farming practices, emphasising the possible benefits of agrobiodiversity for climate adaptation in agriculture and the possible use of remote sensing to assess this. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | ITC: Faculty of Geo-information Science and Earth Observation |
| Subject: | 43 environmental science, 48 agricultural science, 74 (human) geography, cartography, town and country planning, demography |
| Programme: | Spatial Engineering MSc (60962) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/106020 |
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