Remote and Proximal Sensing Techniques for Site-Specific Irrigation Management in the Olive Orchard

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential use of remote and proximal sensing techniques to identify homogeneous zones in a high density irrigated olive (Olea europaea L.) orchard subjected to three irrigation regimes (full irrigation, deficit irrigation and rainfed conditions). An unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with a multispectral camera was used to measure the canopy NDVI and two different proximal soil sensors to map soil spatial variability at high resolution. We identified two clusters of trees showing differences in fruit yield (17.259 and 14.003 kg per tree in Cluster 1 and 2, respectively) and annual TCSA increment (0.26 and 0.24 dm², respectively). The higher tree productivity measured in Cluster 1 also resulted in a higher water use efficiency for fruit (WUE_f of 0.90 g dry weight L⁻¹ H₂O) and oil (WUE_o of 0.32 g oil L⁻¹ H₂O) compared to Cluster 2 (0.67 and 0.27 for WUE_f and WUE_o, respectively). Remote and proximal sensing technologies allowed to determine that: (i) the effect of different irrigation regimes on tree performance and WUE depended on the location within the orchard; (ii) tree vigour played a major role in determining the final fruit yield under optimal soil water availability, whereas soil features prevailed under rainfed conditions.