Mapping rice planting areas in southern China using the China Environment Satellite data

The objective of this research is to investigate the potential of application of China Environment Satellite HJ-1A/B in monitoring rice cultivation areas in Guangdong province in southern China. Information on the rice cultivation areas is of global economic and environmental significance. A CCD camera sensor with 30 m spatial resolution onboard China Environment Satellite HJ-1A and B has visible and near infrared bands and a revisit period of four days; the temporal Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) can therefore be obtained from HJ-1A and B data. The characteristics of the temporal NDVI derived from HJ-1A and B images of rice fields and other crops at rice growth stages in the western part of Guangdong province of China with an area of about 67000 km^2 were first analyzed in this research and an algorithm for mapping paddy rice fields was developed based on the temporal changes of NDVI of rice fields from January to July, 2009. The mapping result was evaluated by field survey and the data from China Ministry of Agriculture and the promising accuracy was found with a Kappa factor of 0.71. The result of this study suggests that the China Environment Satellite HJ-1A/B has great potential in the development of an operational system for monitoring rice crop growth in southern China.

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