A detailed presentation of the project is available on https://www.hynutri.nl/

HyNutri Project

Background

The conventional method of measuring the nutritional composition of crops is to collect crop seed samples and perform chemical analysis of macro- and micro- nutrient composition. This method is time-consuming and expensive, which invariably reduces the sample size and, therefore, robustness of the results. In this context, remote sensing technologies and data might provide a complementary or alternative solution for estimating the nutrient composition of crops.

In this research, we aim to evaluate the potential of European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-2 multispectral broadband (MSBB) and recently available Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana – ASI) PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa (PRISMA) hyperspectral narrowband (HNB) data to estimate and predict the abundance of macro- and micro-nutrients in crops critical to evaluating nutritional status at the agricultural field level.

Overall goal

The overall goal of the HyNutri is to perform an experimental campaign to investigate the potential of MSBBs and HNBs to estimate and predict the concentration of two macro-nutrients (Calcium-Ca, Magnesium-Mg, Potassium-K and Phosphorus-P) and  two micronutrients (Iron-Fe, and Zinc-Zn) in final agricultural production that are essential to improving human nutrition. The concentrations of two additional crop macronutrients (nitrogen-N and Sulfur-S) will also be estimated, given their deficiency in agricultural production and widespread application in soil amendments.

The four work packages of the HyNutri project are presented below:

WP1: Field samples collection

WP2: Laboratory samples processing and analysis

WP3: Earth Observation Data Processing and Analysis using machine learning

WP4: Project Management

Dataset

Hyperspectral images (HNBs):  PRISMA (PRecursore IperSpettrale della Missione Applicativa) is a hyperspectral remote sensing platform that is funded and managed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). PRISMA was launched on 22 March 2019 with a 5-year mission. The sensor consists of 250 HNBs from 400-2500nm at a spatial resolution of 30m. Sixty-six bands are in the visible/very near infrared (400-1010nm) and 171 bands are in the shortwave infrared (920-2505nm) at ~12nm intervals.

 Multispectral images (MSBBs):  Sentinel 2 multispectral data will also be investigated in this project. The followign bands will be used: Band 2-blue (10 m), band 3- green (10 m), band 4-red (10 m), band 5-vegetation red-edge band (20 m), band 6-vegetation red-edge band (20 m), band 7-vegetation red-edge band (20 m), band 8-NIR (10 m), band 8A (20 m), band 11-SWIR (20 m) and band 12-SWIR (20 m)