Open Data Science Europe Workshop 2021

Cropping intensification is defined as cultivating a plot of land several times a year to obtain maximum profit. It is a strategy operated for the profitability of equipment and hydro-agricultural facilities and contributes to the country's food security. The Sidi Bennour district, the area of our study, is part of the hydro-agricultural investment programs. It is located in the west of Morocco and is characterized by a semi-arid climate and a very fragmented landscape with small plots. It covers a large part of the irrigated Doukkala scheme, where irrigation has been implemented progressively in time and space. The use of earth observation data has shown great interest in studying agricultural systems, especially with well-developed technological progress in recent years. Thus, this study aims to measure the spatio-temporal evolution of cropping intensification through an analysis of vegetation cover dynamics using satellite images and the Google Earth Engine platform and R packages. We used Landsat images to build a time series of NDVI values, ranging from 1998 to 2020. The study area overlaps between two Landsat paths, allowing an image every seven days. NDVI time-series profiles were analyzed for each cropping season (CS). In the study area, CS starts in September of the year (Y) and ends in August of the following year (Y+1). As a first step, we assessed the horizontal expansion that occurred in agricultural areas. Subsequently, some metrics were established using the NDVI time series to identify cropping systems. The results show that (1) satellite image time series can be very effective in measuring crop intensification; (2) the introduction of irrigation has been accompanied by a substantial intensification of agricultural activities, which is reflected in the presence of a dense vegetation cover during most of the year; (3) during the two decades of the time series, the use of agricultural space was disturbed by the effects of climate change, with irregularities and low rainfall during the first decade, and alternating rainy and dry years during the last decade. The evolution of NDVI strongly explains this situation in both rainfed and irrigated areas. The results also reveal that during the last three CSs, the NDVI dropped in the irrigated area due to insufficient irrigation water in the dam.