Author(s): LUIZ, A. J. B.

Summary: The proper utilization of statistics in any application area depends primarily on the degree of knowledge of the nature of employed data, as well as on the level of clarity of established goals. Remote sensing offers a rather particular set of data that bear characteristics that must be taken into consideration when choosing the statistical methods to be used in analysis. Application of those data in agriculture will, particularly when the aim is the delimitation and quantification of crop areas, define quite specific goals that should influence on the selection of statistical analysis techniques. The theoretically-based alliance between remote sensing and statistics in a way that is adequate to estimate crop areas, results in a step ahead in the efficient use of data from orbital sensors for agriculture aims. In this direction, this document brings: 1) a method to prepare and use satellite images in agricultural surveys by sampling; 2) the way to calculate objective estimates of crop area and their respective variances; 3) a case study consisting in the estimate of total planted area in a municipality, considering all major crops, with the use of data from remote sensing; and 4) the up scaling of method, by simulation, to regional and national level.

Publication year: 2005

Types of publication: Paper in annals and proceedings

Unit: Embrapa Environment

Keywords: Crop, Estatística, Produção agrícola, Remote sensing, Satellites, Satélite, Statistics