Abstract
In response to climate change, assessing crop productivity under extreme
weather conditions is essential to enhance food security. Crop simulation
models, which align with physical processes, offer explainability but often
perform poorly. Conversely, machine learning (ML) models for crop modeling are
powerful and scalable yet operate as black boxes and lack adherence to crop
growths physical principles. To bridge this gap, we propose a novel method that
combines the strengths of both approaches by estimating the water use and the
crop sensitivity to water scarcity at the pixel level. This approach enables
yield loss estimation grounded in physical principles by sequentially solving
the equation for crop yield response to water scarcity, using an enhanced loss
function. Leveraging Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, climate data, simulated
water use data, and pixel-level yield data, our model demonstrates high
accuracy, achieving an R2 of up to 0.77, matching or surpassing
state-of-the-art models like RNNs and Transformers. Additionally, it provides
interpretable and physical consistent outputs, supporting industry,
policymakers, and farmers in adapting to extreme weather conditions.
Citation
ID:
282056
Ref Key:
dengel2024exploring