Examination of geometric accuracy of the agricultural monitoring system by landscape-oriented remote sensing methods

Abstract

The most dominant actors in the European landscape are the legitimate users of agricultural areas. They can either receive area-based payments based on the cultivated plants or on the uncultivated land kept in condition eligible for support, in line with the provisions of community and national legislation. Furthermore, land-based payments can be received via other rural development measures as well. According to the European Commission regulation the appropriate and eligible claim of the area-based subsidies shall be controlled by the member states. The Control with Remote Sensing (CwRS), which has been promoted by the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) since 1993 and has been delegated to the Joint Research Centre (JRC) in 1998, is the most robust remote sensing technique. Remote sensing based on high resolution (<1m) orthophotos should be replaced by a monitoring system based on ESA Sentinel's low resolution (=> 10m) imageries from 2020, where the deterioration of geometric resolution will be compensated by a significant improvement in time resolution. Previous studies have pointed out the subjective factors influencing the methodology developed by the JRC to determine the technical tolerance used for the System CwRS process. The present study attempts to characterize the new monitoring system with classical CwRS tools while taking previous research results into account. The resampling of the Sentinel-2 from 10 m to 0.5 m and the correction of the parcel geometries with LPIS borders resulted a 2.14 m buffer tolerance. With a proper adjustment of the legal environment it can be acceptable for the payment management, however it can cause some further difficulty to detect small scale damages on the landscape inflicted by agricultural activities.