Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Graduate
Major
Sustainable Agriculture
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Dr. Robin Q. Zhang
Presentation Format
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Description
Agricultural productivity in the southeastern United States is highly vulnerable to drought-induced crop stress, as interannual climate variability can markedly alter crop development and production dynamics. The main goal of this project is to assess how crop health in Calloway County changed between a normal year (2005) and an extreme drought year (2007) using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and to evaluate the effectiveness of NDVI for monitoring crop stress. Cloud free Landsat images were acquired from USGS Earth Explorer. NDVI was produced for each year and a pixel-wise NDVI differencing image was created (ΔNDVI = NDVI_2007 − NDVI_2005). While the 2007 imagery showed extensive NDVI declines, patchiness, and pockets of crop failure associated with drought-induced stress, the 2005 NDVI map showed high greenness and uniform canopy conditions typical of robust summer crops. ΔNDVI results revealed extensive negative values across the agricultural land in the County, particularly in central and western areas. The ecological buffer of riparian and forested areas showed relatively low ΔNDVI. The remote-sensing data were validated using USDA yield statistics at the county level, which revealed significant declines in crop yield in 2007. Despite limitations related to image acquisition dates and cloud contamination, NDVI differencing proved to be a useful, spatially detailed method for detecting drought impacts. The study provides a valuable framework for drought assessment and agricultural decision-making by demonstrating the effectiveness of Landsat-based NDVI in monitoring crop stress at both field and county scales.
Keywords: Crop stress, Calloway County, Drought, NDVI, Landsat
Spring Scholars Week 2026
Sigma Xi Poster Competition
Included in
Comparing a Normal (2005) and a Drought (2007) Year Crop Health using NDVI
Agricultural productivity in the southeastern United States is highly vulnerable to drought-induced crop stress, as interannual climate variability can markedly alter crop development and production dynamics. The main goal of this project is to assess how crop health in Calloway County changed between a normal year (2005) and an extreme drought year (2007) using Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and to evaluate the effectiveness of NDVI for monitoring crop stress. Cloud free Landsat images were acquired from USGS Earth Explorer. NDVI was produced for each year and a pixel-wise NDVI differencing image was created (ΔNDVI = NDVI_2007 − NDVI_2005). While the 2007 imagery showed extensive NDVI declines, patchiness, and pockets of crop failure associated with drought-induced stress, the 2005 NDVI map showed high greenness and uniform canopy conditions typical of robust summer crops. ΔNDVI results revealed extensive negative values across the agricultural land in the County, particularly in central and western areas. The ecological buffer of riparian and forested areas showed relatively low ΔNDVI. The remote-sensing data were validated using USDA yield statistics at the county level, which revealed significant declines in crop yield in 2007. Despite limitations related to image acquisition dates and cloud contamination, NDVI differencing proved to be a useful, spatially detailed method for detecting drought impacts. The study provides a valuable framework for drought assessment and agricultural decision-making by demonstrating the effectiveness of Landsat-based NDVI in monitoring crop stress at both field and county scales.
Keywords: Crop stress, Calloway County, Drought, NDVI, Landsat