Mapping Pasture Areas in Western Region of São Paulo State, Brazil

Abstract

Abstract. Brazil is one of the largest exporters of cattle meat production. Most of this production is under pasture areas, with different levels of livestock and field management. Remotely sensed images could be interesting tools to detect distinct temporal and spatial patterns of these systems. In this context, classification algorithms have been proposed to use information from satellite images to map different land covers. The Time-Weighted Dynamic Time Warping (TWDTW) is an algorithm that has the advantage of working well with datasets with enough amounts of temporal information and seasonality patterns. In the present work, the TWDTW was performed to classify pasture managements in farms located in Western region of São Paulo State in Brazil for the years 2017 and 2018, as a primary study. It was used Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series images from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer – MODIS sensor (products MOD13Q1 and MYD13Q) with 250 meters of spatial resolution. In classifications for the years 2017 and 2018, it was observed a predominance of traditional pasture. Total areas of degraded and traditional pasture were very similar between 2017 and 2018. The year of 2017 showed higher spatial distribution of intensified pastures than year 2018. The classification achieved satisfying results with complete accuracy in validation. The information collected from field visits were important to analyse general aspects of the results. Therefore, in this pilot study TWDTW algorithm demonstrated to have potential in differentiating classes of pasture management. Next steps will be to explore the possibilities to classify pasture systems in large areas.