These crops dominate Germany's agricultural landscape

These crops dominate Germany's agricultural landscape
by Robert Schreiber
Berlin, Germany (SPX) Nov 25, 2024

Roughly half of Germany's land area is dedicated to agriculture, making it a critical component of the nation's economy and environment. Leveraging six years of satellite data, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) has created detailed maps showing the types of crops grown and the patterns of crop rotation used. This extensive dataset supports sustainable farming practices, climate adaptation strategies, and agricultural landscape modeling. Researchers processed approximately 76,100 satellite images, amounting to 44 terabytes of data, for this analysis.

"Satellite-based information on land use is reliable, comprehensive and impartial. It supports sustainable agricultural land management in Germany and provides a foundation for assessing the emerging impacts of climate change," said Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, Chair of the DLR Executive Board. She added that these maps offer a detailed view of agricultural practices in Germany and help identify risks, such as crop failure caused by erosion or extreme weather. This data is valuable for researchers, policymakers, and agricultural stakeholders alike.

Tracking 18 Crops Over Six Years
From 2018 to 2023, the researchers analyzed agricultural land use in Germany with satellite data at a spatial resolution of 10 meters. Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites, part of the EU's Copernicus program, provided high-frequency observations of Earth's surface. This study identified 18 distinct crops and land-use categories, including winter wheat, maize, barley, sugar beet, oilseed rape, grassland, vineyards, and more. Results showed wheat and maize as the most widely cultivated crops, followed by barley.

Regional patterns emerged in crop distribution. Maize is heavily grown in the northwest and southern areas below the Danube, while wheat is distributed more evenly across the country. Specific regions show distinctive farming traditions, such as hops in the Hallertau, fruit farming in Altes Land, and vineyards along the Upper Rhine, Moselle, and Main rivers. These patterns reflect Germany's varied soil types, climates, and agricultural history.

Field-Specific Insights
"We can detect crops on a field-by-field basis, covering every piece of arable land across Germany uniformly. Our data sets allow us to track arable land use over time and assess crop rotations for individual fields," said Ursula Gessner, Head of the Agricultural and Forest Ecosystems group at DLR's Earth Observation Center. This capability enhances traditional agricultural statistics, which typically focus on administrative regions rather than individual fields.

The analysis also offers indirect insights into water requirements, drought resistance, pest susceptibility, and overall agricultural diversity. Crop rotation insights are particularly valuable for maintaining soil health and are expected to evolve with climate change.

Sentinel-1's radar technology provides precise land observation regardless of weather or lighting conditions, while Sentinel-2's optical sensors capture vegetation changes. At the DLR, researchers integrate this satellite data with machine learning, achieving high accuracy in identifying crops. However, accuracy varies; crops like sugar beet and maize are easily identified, while spring cereals and grasslands present more challenges due to similarities in appearance and growth patterns.