Measuring water stress in a wheat crop on a spatial scale using airborne thermal and multispectral imagery

A modified stress index is proposed that accounts for both chronic and acute water stress. Current trapezoid methods that use vegetation cover and temperature indices do not necessarily measure chronic conditions. The modified method describes the chronic stress as the ratio of actual crop cover to its potential expressed such that zero stress occurs when actual cover equals or exceeds the potential as determined by a simulation model. The advantage of such a definition is that in areas where full groundcover is rarely achieved, such as semi-arid regions, a more realistic and conservative stress condition will be observed. Airborne thermal and multispectral images were acquired at four growth stages of a wheat crop from a site in Victoria, Australia with experimental plots having rain-fed and irrigated regimes over two seasons (2005 and 2006). The theoretical basis of vector determination was adopted for trapezoidal extent per season. The relationship between such chronic stress and acute stress is explored and show that in any 2 years large differences between these stresses exist.