Study on extraction of crop information using time-series MODIS data in the Chao Phraya Basin of Thailand

In order to acquire the crop-related information in Chao Phraya Basin, time-series MODIS data were used in this paper. Although the spatial resolution of MODIS data is not very high, it is still useful for detecting very large-scale phenomenon, such as changes in seasonal vegetation patterns. After the data processing a general crop-related LULC (land use and land cover) map, cropping intensity map and cropping patterns map were produced. Analysis of these maps showed that the main land use type in the study area was farmland, most of which was dominated by rice. Rice fields mostly concentrated in the flood plains and double or triple rice-cropping system was commonly employed in this area. Maize, cassava, sugarcane and other upland crops were mainly distributed in the high alluvial terraces. Because these area often have water shortage problem particularly in the dry season which can support only one crop in a year, the cropping intensity was very low. However, some upland areas can be cultivated twice a year with crops which have short growing seasons. The crop information extracted from MODIS data sets were assessed by CBERS data, statistic data and so on. It was shown that MODIS derived crop information coincided well with the statistic data at the provincial level. At the same time, crop information extracted by MODIS data sets and CBERS were compared with each other which also showed similar spatial patterns.