MANAGEMENT CLASS DELIMITATION IN A SOYBEAN CROP USING ORBITAL IMAGES

ABSTRACT The delimitation of management classes is critical for successful precision agriculture. This process involves choosing the variables to use and analyzing the spatial variability of the variables. Thus, the objective of this study was to analyze the correlation between management class maps generated from orbital images and yield maps. A 95-hectare area of rainfed grain was evaluated. Yield maps were obtained for the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 soybean crops. Orbital images were used from two dates for each crop to generate vegetation index maps. The spatial correlation between the vegetation indices and the yield maps was obtained using a bivariate Moran index. The delineated management classes were compared using the Kappa index. This study demonstrated that the Kappa values resulting from the comparison between the management class maps generated from the soybean yield and the vegetation index ranged from 5% to 67% depending on the number of delineated classes. The highest Kappa values were observed when the area was delineated into three classes.