A Quantitative Monitoring Method for Determining Maize Lodging in Different Growth Stages

Many studies have achieved efficient and accurate methods for identifying crop lodging under homogeneous field surroundings. However, under complex field conditions, such as diverse fertilization methods, different crop growth stages, and various sowing periods, the accuracy of lodging identification must be improved. Therefore, a maize plot featuring different growth stages was selected in this study to explore an applicable and accurate lodging extraction method. Based on the Akaike information criterion (AIC), we propose an effective and rapid feature screening method (AIC method) and compare its performance using indexed methods (i.e., variation coefficient and relative difference). Seven feature sets extracted from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images of lodging and nonlodging maize were established using a canopy height model (CHM) and the multispectral imagery acquired from the UAV. In addition to accuracy parameters (i.e., Kappa coefficient and overall accuracy), the difference index (DI) was applied to search for the optimal window size of texture features. After screening all feature sets by applying the AIC method, binary logistic regression classification (BLRC), maximum likelihood classification (MLC), and random forest classification (RFC) were utilized to discriminate among lodging and nonlodging maize based on the selected features. The results revealed that the optimal window sizes of the gray-level cooccurrence matrix (GLCM) and the gray-level difference histogram statistical (GLDM) texture information were 17 × 17 and 21 × 21, respectively. The AIC method incorporating GLCM texture yielded satisfactory results, obtaining an average accuracy of 82.84% and an average Kappa value of 0.66 and outperforming the index screening method (59.64%, 0.19). Furthermore, the canopy structure feature (CSF) was more beneficial than other features for identifying maize lodging areas at the plot scale. Based on the AIC method, we achieved a positive maize lodging recognition result using the CSFs and BLRC. This study provides a highly robust and novel method for monitoring maize lodging in complicated plot environments.

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