Why Combatting Drought Needs A Thermal Approach

Drought in Europe? "This isn’t a heatwave - it’s a climate crisis"

In case you hadn’t noticed the recent spike in ice cream consumption in your area, a sobering set of stats, published by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre last week, serves to show a staggering portion of Europe is currently exposed to ‘warning’ (44% of EU+UK) and ‘alert’ (9% of EU+UK) drought levels, associated with soil moisture deficit in combination with vegetation stress.

Today, an annual average of 15% of the land area and 17% of the population within the European Union is affected by drought. In the EU and UK, annual losses from drought are currently estimated to be around EUR 9 billion and projected to rise to more than EUR 65 billion without meaningful climate action. So, this isn’t just a snap drought (although France experienced its first ‘flash drought ’ this month; a phenomenon usually experienced by hotter and more arid countries, where soil and crops dry up in an astonishing 5 days alone…and there are still 2 months of summer remaining). This is a serious manifestation of climate change that requires cross-sector, cross-jurisdiction approaches.

Monitoring Moisture & Matter

In this context, what options are there for the agricultural sector to best cope with heatwaves, droughts, potential shifts to the growing season and to build resilience and future preparedness?

With heatwaves and other extreme events occurring at a higher intensity, earlier and less predictably than anticipated by climate scientists, the potential effects of water stress and drought on crop health and yield need close monitoring. Crops have their highest water requirement during their flowering and grain development stages, so if drought occurs during this time, there can be a severe effect on yield. Gaining an advantage here through earlier monitoring can help guide better crop planning and agronomy, improved water management, and crop diversification. This includes the addition of cover cropping, which quite literally covers the soil, reducing heat and moisture loss, whilst also increasing soil moisture retention via the increase of organic matter. Regenerative agriculture practices help farmers to combat extreme heat and drought by keeping the soil covered continuously with plant material, thus minimising soil disturbance, increasing crop diversity and reintroducing livestock sustainably. More farmers will need to adopt these practices in order to make their farms more resilient to the effects of climate change.

The best way to be able to adapt to such changes will come from continuous rainfall and temperature observation, monitoring for changes in soil moisture before, during and even after the growing season.

Feet On The Ground, Eyes In The Sky

There is a range of existing, regional level satellite assets that offer possibilities for crop health monitoring. From synthetic aperture radar (SAR) datasets - which provide weather independent insights - to the widely available, visual near infrared (VNIR) which offers a cheap method of detecting crop changes based on visible changes in plant colour or form. Thermal infrared monitoring enables a deeper look at the health of plants, offering the capacity to observe changes in crop health, long before visual signs manifest.?

Thermal Thinking

Whilst thermal infrared monitoring via satellite has been accessible since the 90s and can therefore be considered a mature technology among remote sensing data scientists, it currently suffers from a lack of data coverage. Publicly available datasets based on satellites such as Modis, LandSat and ECOSTRESS cannot provide sufficient resolution nor can they deliver the data quickly enough between measurement on the satellite and a processed dataset reaching a FMIS, to detect and report change before the telling, unmitigable, signs of drought materialise on the ground.?

constellr is pioneering a novel, 50 metre resolution, field (or even sub-field) level monitoring of vegetative stress. Our data has a temperature precision (radiometric accuracy) of less than 1.5 kelvin (K), allowing those with their feet on the ground to have a precise status on crop temperature on a daily and even sub-daily basis in some areas. From measurement in space to delivery of thermal insights at field level takes a matter of hours. This allows for almost near time decision-making power for in-situ management systems such as irrigation or for other non-water inputs. Longer term, access to such data sources facilitates awareness building and a recognition of micro indicators and macro trends leading to agricultural drought. The knock-on effect for planning certainty and volatility reduction across the entire supply and logistics chain is anticipated to be huge, even more so for crops with higher levels of sensitivity or external influence, such as sugar .?

→ You’d like to understand more about what’s in it for you or the crops under your management? Contact us directly via the website or the contact details below.

Adapting to a Changing Climate

Whilst Europe’s hottest summer languors on, what options are there to assist with longer term planning, adaptation and mitigation for longer-term agricultural drought, particularly in areas where infrastructure is not yet fit for purpose for a changing climate? If you are interested in learning more about the relative time and cost advantages that thermal infrared data can bring to your agricultural applications, please get in touch.

Want to learn more? Please reach out...

Dr. Lina Hollender | [email protected] | www.constellr.space