Advancing sustainable agricultural: A novel framework for mapping annual 30-m resolution national-level irrigated croplands

With regard to climate change and population growth, irrigated croplands need to be accurately delineated for sustainable water resource management. Owing to the lack of extensive training samples and the limitations of coarse spatiotemporal resolution data in complex agricultural regions, China’s i...

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Main Authors: Enyu Du, Fang Chen, Huicong Jia, Jinwei Dong, Lei Wang, Yu Chen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-06-01
Series:International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843225002365
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author Enyu Du
Fang Chen
Huicong Jia
Jinwei Dong
Lei Wang
Yu Chen
author_facet Enyu Du
Fang Chen
Huicong Jia
Jinwei Dong
Lei Wang
Yu Chen
author_sort Enyu Du
collection DOAJ
description With regard to climate change and population growth, irrigated croplands need to be accurately delineated for sustainable water resource management. Owing to the lack of extensive training samples and the limitations of coarse spatiotemporal resolution data in complex agricultural regions, China’s irrigated croplands are difficult to map with a unified spatiotemporal framework. This study presents an innovative method for mapping irrigated and rainfed croplands in mainland China with a local adaptive random forest classifier on the Google Earth Engine platform. Based on the dynamic threshold extraction of multiple peak vegetation index values and a rigorous multi-dataset integration strategy, the annual sample sets of irrigated and rainfed croplands are generated automatically. After constructing 147 multi-feature variables sensitive to irrigation activities, China’s annual irrigated croplands dataset (CAICD) is developed, with 30-m spatial resolution for the 1990–2022 period. The results show the following:(1) CAICD has higher accuracy and a more realistic spatial distribution of irrigated croplands compared with existing datasets, with an average overall accuracy of 0.80. (2) The most sensitive classification features for irrigation signals are spectral indices and original bands, with regional differences influenced by climate characteristics (precipitation and evapotranspiration) and terrain features. (3) Over the past three decades, China’s irrigated croplands have expanded overall and Xinjiang has exhibited the most significant increase and the highest growth rate of irrigated area in mainland China, with an annual expansion of 103 thousand hectares. The results exhibit significant implications for the balance between food security and water resource security, providing valuable insights and contributions for future global monitoring of irrigated croplands.
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spelling doaj-art-61484a4d181b4eccb81b58fcf30cccb62025-08-20T02:02:24ZengElsevierInternational Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation1569-84322025-06-0114010458910.1016/j.jag.2025.104589Advancing sustainable agricultural: A novel framework for mapping annual 30-m resolution national-level irrigated croplandsEnyu Du0Fang Chen1Huicong Jia2Jinwei Dong3Lei Wang4Yu Chen5Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China; International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing 100094, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, ChinaKey Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China; International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing 100094, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Corresponding author at: Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China.Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China; International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing 100094, ChinaKey Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaKey Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China; International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing 100094, ChinaKey Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China; International Research Center of Big Data for Sustainable Development Goals, Beijing 100094, ChinaWith regard to climate change and population growth, irrigated croplands need to be accurately delineated for sustainable water resource management. Owing to the lack of extensive training samples and the limitations of coarse spatiotemporal resolution data in complex agricultural regions, China’s irrigated croplands are difficult to map with a unified spatiotemporal framework. This study presents an innovative method for mapping irrigated and rainfed croplands in mainland China with a local adaptive random forest classifier on the Google Earth Engine platform. Based on the dynamic threshold extraction of multiple peak vegetation index values and a rigorous multi-dataset integration strategy, the annual sample sets of irrigated and rainfed croplands are generated automatically. After constructing 147 multi-feature variables sensitive to irrigation activities, China’s annual irrigated croplands dataset (CAICD) is developed, with 30-m spatial resolution for the 1990–2022 period. The results show the following:(1) CAICD has higher accuracy and a more realistic spatial distribution of irrigated croplands compared with existing datasets, with an average overall accuracy of 0.80. (2) The most sensitive classification features for irrigation signals are spectral indices and original bands, with regional differences influenced by climate characteristics (precipitation and evapotranspiration) and terrain features. (3) Over the past three decades, China’s irrigated croplands have expanded overall and Xinjiang has exhibited the most significant increase and the highest growth rate of irrigated area in mainland China, with an annual expansion of 103 thousand hectares. The results exhibit significant implications for the balance between food security and water resource security, providing valuable insights and contributions for future global monitoring of irrigated croplands.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843225002365IrrigationChinaAutomatic samplingRandom forestSpatiotemporal patterns
spellingShingle Enyu Du
Fang Chen
Huicong Jia
Jinwei Dong
Lei Wang
Yu Chen
Advancing sustainable agricultural: A novel framework for mapping annual 30-m resolution national-level irrigated croplands
International Journal of Applied Earth Observations and Geoinformation
Irrigation
China
Automatic sampling
Random forest
Spatiotemporal patterns
title Advancing sustainable agricultural: A novel framework for mapping annual 30-m resolution national-level irrigated croplands
title_full Advancing sustainable agricultural: A novel framework for mapping annual 30-m resolution national-level irrigated croplands
title_fullStr Advancing sustainable agricultural: A novel framework for mapping annual 30-m resolution national-level irrigated croplands
title_full_unstemmed Advancing sustainable agricultural: A novel framework for mapping annual 30-m resolution national-level irrigated croplands
title_short Advancing sustainable agricultural: A novel framework for mapping annual 30-m resolution national-level irrigated croplands
title_sort advancing sustainable agricultural a novel framework for mapping annual 30 m resolution national level irrigated croplands
topic Irrigation
China
Automatic sampling
Random forest
Spatiotemporal patterns
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1569843225002365
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