Appendix K.

Evapotranspiration Estimation from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

APPENDIX K. EVAPOTRANSPIRATION ESTIMATION FROM

UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES

“MULTISPECTRAL/THERMAL IMAGERY FOR HIGH SPATIAL RESOLUTION

METRIC-ET MAPS AND RELATIVE HUMIDITY-AIR TEMPERATURE SPATIAL
PROFILE IN ALFALFA AND PASTURE IN THE SSJ DELTA-CALIFORNIA”.

JORGE ANDRÉS MORANDÉ, RICARDO TREZZA, ANDREAS ANDERSON, KYAW THA

PAW, YUFANG JIN, YANGQUAN CHEN, JOSH VIERS AND JOSUÉ MEDELLÍN-AZUARA
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS
APRIL 2017

INTRODUCTION
In this Appendix, we present mapped estimates of crop evapotranspiration (ET) employing
high resolution multispectral images from a drone, identified henceforth as an Unmanned
Aerial Vehicle (UAV), based on the METRICtm model (Mapping Evapotranspiration at High
Resolution using Internalized Calibration) for estimating consumptive use in alfalfa and
pasture in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. METRIC is commonly applied to estimate
actual evapotranspiration (ETa) using the alfalfa-based reference evapotranspiration (ETr).
The original METRIC approach employs Landsat images and produces evapotranspiration
maps at a 30-meter resolution. This study presents maps at a 1-meter resolution from UAVs
to evaluate in-field evapotranspiration differences otherwise not captured by the coarser
resolution Landsat images.

Imagery from the UAV was acquired using a multispectral (multiple spectral bands) and
thermal camera. Some flights included sensors to measure relative humidity and air
temperatures. The acquired data were then interpolated and mapped, providing additional
information for comparison purposes with METRIC maps.

The major objectives of the study using UAV include:

• Building reliable high spatial resolution ET maps (1-m pixel) to be compared with
satellite Landsat 8 images (30-m pixel) processed by METRIC and evaluate the
spatial characterization and variability of both sources at field scale.
• Sensing air temperature and relative humidity from the aerial platform to
characterize a horizontal and vertical profile as well as to evaluate the feasibility of
mapping ET through alternative methods such as surface renewal.

METHODS
During the irrigation season of the 2016 calendar year, nine UAV flight missions were
deployed to obtain multispectral/thermal images from a UAV platform in parcels of alfalfa

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 Appendix K. Evapotranspiration Estimation from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

(38°13’19.93”, -121°29’49.04”), pasture (38°11’33.20”, -121°30’32.54”), and corn

(38°11’12.12”, -121°30’42.48”) crops in Staten Island, California.

Alfalfa was managed to produce dry forage with growth cycles of ~30 days. Pasture crop
was managed exclusively for cattle grazing and was composed primarily by “X” species
and patches of Italian rye grass, white clover, rabbit’s foot grass, nutgrass, and juncus
species (Spike and Baltic rush).The corn crop aimed to produce grain for livestock feed.
During the study, alfalfa was subjected to two cuts and one irrigation whereas pasture was
grazed regularly and also irrigated only one time.

Flights were scheduled to match Landsat 8 satellite passes with an initial flight carried out on
July 29th and a last one on October 1st of 2016. Additionally, one flight was set to measure
biophysical parameters (Air Temperature and Relative Humidity) in ~1 ha block of on-going
irrigated pasture to map their variability. The missions were conducted by the UC Merced
MESA Lab.

Multispectral images composed of five bands (Red, Green, Blue, Red-edge and Near
infrared) were sensed with a MicaSense RedEdgeTM 3 multispectral camera which was
manually attached below the center of the drone. As for a thermal sensor, an ICI 9640
camera was assembled in the frontal low part of the UAV to properly collect images during
the same flight. Within the parcels, an area of ~1 ha was sensed by 1 to 2 UAV flights.
Flight missions were spatially designed to obtain image sequences overlapping 80% or
higher in each flight polygon, or the area covered by the drone per flight.
Weather stations were previously set in the same locations where drones sensed in order to
validate aerial measurements with ground-based data. Daily ET values from these stations
were calculated using calibrated surface renewal for the sensible heat flux estimates as
residual energy balance.

Images were stitched and preprocessed using various software including ERDAS Imagine
2015 to obtain reflectance maps of the bands required for running METRIC.
UAV multispectral images were processed with Pix4Dmapper Pro and parallel with Atlas, a
software developed by the Micasense camera manufacturer.

Thermal images were processed with IR Flash Version 2.14.26.9 for image format
transformation. Temperature values were deployed through Octave (GUI), the same
software used to detect and fix thermal drift (slow shifts of temperature caused by internal
heating of the sensor during normal operation) identified in some of the images.

1. Air Temperature and Relative Humidity

A block of pasture for cattle grazing was the experimental field for physical measurements
of air temperature and relative humidity. . A flight polygon of ~690 m perimeter covering
an area of ~ 3.5 ha was set near the center of the block. A minimum of 33 m distance was
left between the polygon and block boundaries to avoid border effect with the surrounding
blocks. A SparkFun Humidity and Temperature Sensor Breakout - SHT15 was installed to
sense both air temperature and relative humidity at three different heights, following the
same polygon shape at secondly basis. This crop was flood irrigated, thus lack of

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 Appendix K. Evapotranspiration Estimation from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

homogeneity in water distribution observed in the field was desirable to see if our spatial
measurements correlated with the distribution of soil moisture in the field.

2. METRIC-L8 and METRIC-UAV

ET estimates were derived from METRICtm (Mapping Evapotranspiration at High Resolution
using Internalized Calibration). METRIC calculates ET through a series of computations that
estimate surface net radiation, soil heat flux, and sensible heat flux to the air. METRIC-L8
considers the application of the METRIC methodology to Landsat 8 images (30m pixel
spatial resolution) whereas METRIC-UAV computes ET over high resolution (0.05 and 1m
pixel) UAV images. In both cases, before or after processing, the same area of interest was
identified within the respective image and a subset image was generated.

2.1 METRIC-L8 and METRIC-UAV-ndvi approach

This approach is based on high resolution spectral images obtained with the UAV and
coarse thermal Landsat 8 images, corresponding to the same overpass time, as inputs. The
approach is based on the high correlation between Normalized difference vegetation index
(NDVI) and alfalfa-based crop coefficient (ETrF), especially when the amount of vegetation
approaches full cover conditions.
NDVI images for all three crops were processed and a subset images were cropped from
each one to post processing into ET maps.
A suitable model was developed using the Landsat 8 METRIC results for these two
parameters (NDVI and ETrF), regardless of the coarser resolution of the image, to obtain an
ETrF = f(NDVI) model.
First, NDVI was calculated using UAV images with the two bands required by the index (red
and near infrared (NIR)) out of the five bands sensed by Micasense. Subsequently, ET
estimates were obtained at high UAV spatial resolution by applying NDVI to the best-fit
Landsat 8 NDVI/ETrF model. Average ETrF were compared for the study area, and UAV-
ETrF estimates were biasedly corrected until average ETrF were the same as predicted by
METRIC-L8.
The fact of considering only UAV spectral images, for NDVI and thus ET estimations, allows a
more agile flight mission to be carried out, as well as a faster pre- and post-process
analysis of the images.
Operationally, this approach constitutes an interesting and efficient way to map ET at high
spatial resolution using UAV images that are concurrent with Landsat images. Later,
additional non-concurrent UAV images can be used to estimate ET using the relationship
ETrF=f(NDVI)+bias, previously developed for the study area.

2.2 METRIC-UAV-thermal

The METRIC-UAV-thermal approach includes a sixth band, the thermal, but in this case it is
sensed directly from the UAV’s thermal camera. Thermal data was obtained exclusively
from alfalfa, considering its potential higher variability of ET due to a combination of
cuttings and irrigation schedule. In the METRIC algorithm, the thermal band is employed in
the calculation of surface energy balance. Thermal information is used to estimate sensible
heat flux (H), soil heat flux (G), and net radiation (Rn). Rn uses surface temperature to
estimate longwave thermal emission by the surface.

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 Appendix K. Evapotranspiration Estimation from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

This approach is essentially the METRIC model as described by Allen et al (2007), but
utilizing high resolution UAV images. The fact that surface temperature (Ts) is the main driver
of the surface energy balance, results in a high correlation between Ts and ETrF values
obtained by METRIC. In METRIC, the relationship between Ts and ETrF is stronger than the
one between NDVI and ETrF.
In locations where bare soil or partially vegetated conditions are present, either within or
outside the sensed field, ETrF is strongly related to surface temperature, which is an
indicator of the amount of moisture at the soil surface, rather than NDVI.
A Landsat 8 image was only used to compare ET average of the studied area, and
therefore, adjust the model accordingly when it was necessary.

RESULTS
Results are presented in three sections according to different methods tested and data
processing implemented.

Air Temperature and Relative Humidity

A Temperature-Elevation gradient was observed while flying a UAV in three different flight
polygons, each one at heights of 6 meters (low), 10 meters (medium), and 15 meters (high),
respectively. The flight polygon area recorded measurement of horizontal spatial variation
due to irrigation.

Figure 1. Air Temperature (red) and Relative humidity (blue) evolution at three different sensed heights (black)
but deployed as a same horizontal polygon by each elevation.

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 Appendix K. Evapotranspiration Estimation from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Figure 2. Air Temperature values (secondly basis) for UAV flight path for three heights: 6m (blue), 10m
(yellow), 15m (red). An elevation gradient is observed during the entire polygon in all three flights.
Temperature decreasing in a fraction of the polygon matches with the area being flood irrigated during
the flight.

Figure 3 (above). Atmospheric vapor pressure (AVP) horizontal interpolated planes (Spline method).
AVP values are in Pascals (Pa) and were calculated using Relative humidity and Temperature data
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collected by the UAV in each polygon’s boundary.
 Appendix K. Evapotranspiration Estimation from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

METRIC-L8 and METRIC-UAV-ndvi approach

Results showed variability in daily ET as high as a 75.3 % difference in the METRIC-UAV-ndvi

approach. UAV ET estimates for alfalfa, pasture, and corn, and the comparison with Landsat 8
values are depicted in Table 1. All three crops showed a relatively low average absolute difference
in the mean ET estimated by UAV compared to the satellite images, 1.95% in alfalfa (NDVI), 5.15%
in pasture (NDVI) and 1.40% in corn. Nevertheless, the variability shown by high spatial resolution
images was significantly different compared to 30 meters-pixel images where alfalfa showed up to
75.3 and 43.1% average difference for minimum and maximum ET values, respectively. Likewise,
pasture crop yielded average differences of 65.6 and 24.9%, whereas corn showed the lowest
differences for Min (33.5%) and the highest for Max (45.4%) for same parameters.

Table 1. METRIC-L8 versus METRIC-UAV-ndvi daily ET estimates per crop for two different dates in alfalfa
and pasture and three dates in corn are shown below. METRIC-L8 versus METRIC-UAV-ndvi daily ET estimates
in alfalfa (top), pasture (middle) and corn (bottom). August 30th, estimated for all three crops, shows the
differences between full cover vegetation (pasture and corn) and partially covered (alfalfa) under similar
irrigation regimes.

Crop: Alfalfa
Landsat 8 UAV Alfalfa station
July 29, 2016 Delta ET %
ETrF ET (mm/day) ETrF ET (mm/day) ET (mm/day)

Min 0.57 5.19 0.02 0.18 -96.5

Max 0.77 7.01 1.12 10.19 45.5
Mean 0.66 6.01 0.68 6.19 3.0 5.34
SD 0.06 0.55 0.16 1.46
Landsat 8 UAV Alfalfa station
August 30, 2016 Delta ET %
ETrF ET (mm/day) ETrF ET (mm/day) ET (mm/day)

Min 0.5 3.65 0.236 1.72 -52.8

Max 0.93 6.79 1.167 8.52 25.5
Mean 0.77 5.62 0.768 5.61 -0.3 3.67
SD 0.09 0.66 0.164 1.20

Crop: Pasture
Landsat 8 UAV Alfalfa station
August 30, 2016 Delta ET %
ETrF ET (mm/day) ETrF ET (mm/day) ET (mm/day)

Min 0.793 7.22 0.308 2.80 -61.2

Max 1.009 9.18 1.182 10.76 17.1
Mean 0.894 8.14 0.854 7.77 -4.5 4.76
SD 0.046 0.42 0.128 1.16
September 15, Landsat 8 UAV Alfalfa station
Delta ET %
2016 ETrF ET (mm/day) ETrF ET (mm/day) ET (mm/day)

Min 0.745 3.87 0.256 1.33 -65.6

Max 0.906 4.71 1.132 5.89 24.9
Mean 0.829 4.31 0.877 4.56 5.8 3.46
SD 0.037 0.19 0.123 0.64

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Crop: Corn
Landsat 8 UAV Alfalfa station
August 30, 2016 Delta ET %
ET (mm/day)
ETrF ET (mm/day) ETrF ET (mm/day)
Min 0.920 6.716 0.623 4.548 -32.283
Max 1.086 7.928 1.403 10.242 29.190
Mean 1.013 7.395 0.997 7.278 -1.579 0.968
SD 0.040 0.292 0.096 0.701
September 15, Landsat 8 UAV Alfalfa station
Delta ET %
2016 ET (mm/day)
ETrF ET (mm/day) ETrF ET (mm/day)
Min 0.838 4.358 0.557 2.896 -33.532
Max 0.905 4.706 1.316 6.843 45.414
Mean 0.877 4.560 0.863 4.488 -1.596 1.164
SD 0.016 0.083 0.060 0.312

Compared to satellite and UAV results, weather stations located in the experimental fields yielded
consistently lower daily ET mean values. These differences were particularly high in corn, compared
to alfalfa and pasture which shown similar differences with ground ET measurements (Table 1).

UAV-METRIC-thermal approach

The high resolution UAV METRIC-thermal in August 30th yielded a wider range of ET data in alfalfa
compared to the NDVI approach and therefore, to Landsat 8. In other words, variability of ET in the
alfalfa block was more accurately described by the METRIC-thermal method. Although the absolute
difference of mean ET between UAV and satellite was higher (-8.9%) compared to NDVI approach,
METRIC-thermal yielded a higher data dispersion (wider range of ET values) over the same field
block, detecting points of none evapotranspiration (Table 2).

Table 2. METRIC-L8 versus METRIC-UAV-thermal daily ET estimates in alfalfacrop for August 30, 2016.

Crop: Alfalfa
Landsat 8 UAV Alfalfa station
August 30, 2016 Delta ET %
ET (mm/day)
ETrF ET (mm/day) ETrF ET (mm/day)
Min 0.498 3.635 0 0.00 -100.0
Max 0.917 6.694 1.078 7.87 17.6
Mean 0.761 5.555 0.693 5.06 -8.9 3.674
SD 0.093 0.679 0.163 1.19

Conclusions
This research improves information on water use and site conditions in agriculture by enhancing
remote sensing-based estimations through the use of higher resolution multispectral and thermal

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imagery captured by UAV. We assess whether more frequent information at higher spatial
resolution from UAVs can improve estimations of overall ET through the combination of energy
balance and imagery.

ET mapping at high resolution (1-m pixel) delivers enough data to growers that is not possible to
detect at Landsat 8 scale (30-m pixel). Moreover, comparisons of UAV and satellite data yielded
similar mean and data ranges, but as expected, UAV showed higher level of dispersion compared
to the satellite.
For management purposes, characterizing differences of crop water consumption at field scale and
high resolution facilitates growers to determine where hydric related issues are located and how
water management should be improved regardless the nature of the cause. Particularly, the use of a
high resolution thermal band can detect areas where crops are stressed by lack of water, a
condition that is manifested by an increase of surface temperature and a reduction of ET.
The simple operation deployed to collect this data allows the scheduling of a high frequency flight
program during the growing season, and thus, weekly information to track crop water consumption
and potential water stress.

Acknowledgements
Special thanks to UC Water for sponsoring this study, and The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC), Dawit
M. Zeleke, Associate Director, of Conservation farms and ranches, and Morgan Johnson, Farm
Manager, for providing us of experimental crop fields for data sensing and encouraging interest in
the research.

References
Allen, R.G., Trezza, R., Tasumi, M., Kjaersgaard, J. Mapping Evapotranspiration at High Resolution
using Internalized Calibration. Applications Manual for Landsat Satellite Imagery Version 3.0,
April 2014. University of Idaho, Kimberly, Idaho

Allen, R. G., M Tasumi, and R. Trezza. 2007. Satellite-based energy balance for mapping
evapotranspiration with internalized calibration (METRIC) – Model. Journal of Irrigation and
Drainage Engineering 133, no. 4: 380-394.