Smartphone-based estimation of green cover depends on the phone’s camera

Article: Smartphone-based estimation of green cover depends on the camera used

Authors: Mattila, Tuomas & Heinonen, Reija

Publication: Agronomy Journal

Year: 2021

Smartphone-based visual assessment of vegetation cover is a promising, fast, and repeatable approach that allows land managers to compare measurements on their farm with other farms. This study determined the influence of two smartphone devices on green cover measurements on several crops and compared the results. Forty fields in Finland were sampled between 10 and 28 July 2020. The results were also compared with Sentinel-2 remote sensing of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and biomass quadrants. The findings suggest that smartphone-based monitoring can be used at least to classify vegetation to low, medium, and high density but that results from different cameras should not be compared.