Dependence of CWSI-Based Plant Water Stress Estimation with Diurnal Acquisition Times in a Nectarine Orchard

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing has become a readily usable tool for agricultural water management with high temporal and spatial resolutions. UAV‐borne thermogra-phy can monitor crop water status near real‐time, which enables precise irrigation scheduling based on an accurate decision‐making strategy. The crop water stress index (CWSI) is a widely adopted indicator of plant water stress for irrigation management practices; however, dependence of its efficacy on data acquisition time during the daytime is yet to be investigated rigorously. In this paper, plant water stress captured by a series of UAV remote sensing campaigns at different times of the day (9h, 12h and 15h) in a n..