Abstract:The potential of optical remote sensing data to identify, map and monitor croplands is well recognized. However, clouds strongly limit the usefulness of optical imagery for these applications. This paper aims at assessing cloud cover conditions over four states in the tropical and sub-tropical Center-South region of Brazil to guide the development of an appropriate agricultural monitoring system based on Landsat-like imagery. Cloudiness was assessed during overlapping four months periods to match the typical length of crop cycles in the study area. The percentage of clear sky occurrence was computed from the 1 km resolution MODIS Cloud Mask product (MOD35) considering 14 years of data between July 2000 and June 2014. Results showed high seasonality of cloud occurrence within the crop year with strong variations across the study area. The maximum seasonality was observed for the two states in the northern part of the study area (i.e., the ones closer to the Equator line), which also presented the lowest averaged values (15%) of clear sky occurrence during the main (summer) cropping period (November to February). In these locations, optical data faces severe constraints for mapping summer crops. On the other hand, relatively favorable conditions were found in the southern part of the study region. In the South, clear sky values of around 45% were found and no significant clear sky seasonality was observed. Results underpin the challenges to implement an operational crop monitoring system based solely on optical remote sensing imagery in tropical and sub-tropical regions, in particular if short-cycle crops have to be monitored during the cloudy summer months. To cope with cloudiness issues, we recommend the use of new systems with higher repetition rates such as Sentinel-2. For local studies, Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs) might be used to augment the observing capability. Multi-sensor approaches combining optical and microwave data can be another option. In cases where wall-to-wall maps are not mandatory, statistical sampling approaches might also be a suitable alternative for obtaining useful crop area information.

Resumo -O objetivo deste trabalho foi desenvolver um método para identificação e monitoramento, em tempo quase real, de áreas agrícolas cultivadas com lavouras temporárias de verão, com uso de imagens orbitais Modis, no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. A metodologia foi denominada detecção de áreas agrícolas em tempo quase real (DATQuaR) e utiliza imagens do sensor Modis referentes aos índices de vegetação (IVs) EVI e NDVI, disponibilizadas em composições de 16 dias. Foram utilizadas quatro métricas para agregar os valores de IVs por pixel, dentro dos períodos bimensais avaliados: média, máximo, mínimo e mediana. Para gerar as imagens (ImDATQuaR), a imagem agregada para o período imediatamente anterior foi subtraída da imagem agregada para o período em monitoramento. Essas imagens foram classificadas por meio de fatiamento e comparadas às classes de referência obtidas pela interpretação visual de pixels aleatorizados em imagens Landsat. Cada ImDATQuaR gerou dois mapas DATQuaR: um com filtragem de moda com janela 3x3 pixels e outro sem filtragem. O melhor mapa DATQuaR é produzido com uso de imagens EVI e filtragem -ao se subtrair a imagem de mínimo valor para o período anterior da imagem de máximo valor para o período monitorado -e atinge concordâncias com a referência superiores a 81%.Termos para indexação: DATQuaR, mapas de culturas de verão, monitoramento agrícola, sensoriamento remoto. Near real-time detection of crop fields with Modis imagesAbstract -The objective of this work was to develop a method to identify and monitor, in near real-time, crop field areas cultivated with temporary summer crops, using Modis orbital images, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The methodology was called near real-time detection of crop fields (DATQuaR) and uses Modis sensor images of the NDVI and EVI vegetation indices (VIs) from 16-day composites. Four different metrics were used to aggregate the values of VIs per pixel, in the bimonthly periods evaluated: average, maximum, minimum, and median. To generate the images (ImDATQuaR), the aggregated image for the previous period was subtracted from the aggregated image for the monitored period. These images were classified by slicing and compared with the reference classes obtained by the visual interpretation of randomly selected pixels in Landsat images. Each ImDATQuaR image generated two DATQuaR maps: one with a 3x3 pixel window mode filter and another without filtering. The best DATQuaR map is produced using EVI images and filtering -by subtracting the image of minimum value for the previous period from the image of maximum value for the monitored period -and achieves agreement with the reference over 81%.

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This study simulates the evolution of artificial economies in order to understand the tax relevance of administrative boundaries in the quality of life of its citizens. The modeling involves the construction of a computational algorithm, which includes citizens, bounded into families; firms and governments; all of them interacting in markets for goods, labor and real estate. The real estate market allows families to move to dwellings with higher quality or lower price when the families capitalize property values. The goods market allows consumers to search on a flexible number of firms choosing by price and proximity. The labor market entails a matching process between firms (given its location) and candidates, according to their qualification. The government may be configured into one, four or seven distinct sub-national governments, which are all economically conurbated. The role of government is to collect taxes on the value added of firms in its territory and invest the taxes into higher levels of quality of life for residents. The results suggest that the configuration of administrative boundaries is relevant to the levels of quality of life arising from the reversal of taxes. The model with seven regions is more dynamic, but more unequal and heterogeneous across regions. The simulation with only one region is more homogeneously poor. The study seeks to contribute to a theoretical and methodological framework as well as to describe, operationalize and test computer models of public finance analysis, with explicitly spatial and dynamic emphasis. Several alternatives of expansion of the model for future research are described. Moreover, this study adds to the existing literature in the realm of simple microeconomic computational models, specifying structural relationships between local governments and firms, consumers and dwellings mediated by distance.

Cloud cover is the main issue to consider when remote sensing images are used to identify, map and monitor croplands, especially over the summer season (October to March in Brazi). This paper aims at evaluating clear sky conditions over four Brazilian states (São Paulo, Paraná, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul) to assess suitable observation conditions for a monthly basis operational crop monitoring system. Cloudiness was analyzed using MODIS Cloud Mask product (MOD35), which presents four labels for cloud cover status: cloudy, uncertainty, probably clear and confident clear. R software was used to compute average values of clear sky with a confidence interval of 95% for each month between July 1 st , 2000 and June 30 th , 2013. Results showed significant differences within and between the four tested states. Moreover, the period from November to March presented 50% less clear sky areas when compared to April to October.Index Terms-Cloud cover, Brazilian agriculture, MODIS, acreage estimation

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The agricultural activity can greatly benefit from remote sensing technology (RS). Optical passive RS has been vastly explored for agricultural mapping and monitoring, in despite of cloud cover issue. This is observed even in the tropics, where frequency of clouds is very high. However, more studies are needed to better understand the high dynamism of tropical agriculture and its impact on the use of passive RS. In tropical countries, such as in Brazil, the use of current agricultural technologies, associated with favourable climate, allow the planting period to be wide and to have plants of varying phenological cycles. In this context, the main objective of the current study is to better understand the dynamics of a selected area in Southeast of São Paulo state, and its impact on the use of orbital passive RS. For that purpose, data (from field and satellite) from 55 agricultural fields, including annual, semi-perennial and perennial crops and silviculture, were acquired between July 2014 and December 2016. Field campaigns were conducted in a monthly base to gather information about the condition of the crops along their development (data available in a website). Field data corresponding to the 2014&amp;ndash;2015 crop year were associated with a time series of Landsat-8/OLI RGB false-colour compositions images and MODIS/Terra NDVI profiles. The type of information that can be extracted (such as specie identification, crop management practices adopted, date of harvest, type o production system used etc) by combining passive remote sensing data with field data is discussed in the paper.</p>

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A presente pesquisa teve por objetivo avaliar a potencialidade de dados multitemporais Landsat para classificação de cana-de-açúcar e de soja, conjuntamente, quando realizada via Análise de Imagens Orientada a Objetos (OBIA/ Random Forest). Foi utilizado um segmentador multi-resolução (SM) para gerar os polígonos (objetos). Um conjunto de 500 segmentações foi criado pela variação dos parâmetros Fe (fator de escala), Fm (forma) e Cp (compacidade), e avaliado pelo índice de Avaliação da Segmentação (IAVAS). Da segmentação que obteve menor IAVAS, foram extraídos os atributos espectrais das médias e desvios-padrão das bandas TM/Landsat-5 [setembro (S) e outubro (O) do ano 2000] e ETM+/Landsat-7 [fevereiro (F) e março (M) do ano 2001] dos objetos, e seus NDVIs. Estes atributos foram inseridos no algoritmo Random Forest (RF) e as exatidões das classificações foram testadas quanto ao uso dos seguintes conjuntos de datas: SOFM; SFM; OFM; SOF; FM; OF; SF; e F. O IAVAS definiu Fe (35), Fm (30) e Cp (50) como melhores parâmetros de segmentação. As melhores exatidões de classificação Random Forest situaram-se em torno de 86%. Duas datas produziram melhor resultado que apenas uma, entretanto, o uso de mais de duas não produziu melhora significativa na exatidão final da classificação.