Estimating Agricultural Soil Moisture Content through UAV-Based Hyperspectral Images in the Arid Region

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based hyperspectral remote sensing is an important monitoring technology for the soil moisture content (SMC) of agroecological systems in arid regions. This technology develops precision farming and agricultural informatization. However, hyperspectral data are generally used in data mining. In this study, UAV-based hyperspectral imaging data with a resolution o 4 cm and totaling 70 soil samples (0–10 cm) were collected from farmland (2.5 × 104 m2) near Fukang City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. Four estimation strategies were tested: the original image (strategy I), first- and second-order derivative methods (strategy II), the fractional-order derivative (FOD) technique (strategy III), and the optimal fractional order combined with the optimal multiband indices (strategy IV). These strategies were based on the eXtreme Gradient Boost (XGBoost) algorithm, with the aim of building the best estimation model for agricultural SMC in arid regions. The results demonstrated that FOD technology could effectively mine information (with an absolute maximum correlation coefficient of 0.768). By comparison, strategy IV yielded the best estimates out of the methods tested (R2val = 0.921, RMSEP = 1.943, and RPD = 2.736) for the SMC. The model derived from the order of 0.4 within strategy IV worked relatively well among the different derivative methods (strategy I, II, and III). In conclusion, the combination of FOD technology and the optimal multiband indices generated a highly accurate model within the XGBoost algorithm for SMC estimation. This research provided a promising data mining approach for UAV-based hyperspectral imaging data.