Assessment of maize water status using a consumer-grade camera and thermal imagery

The analysis of plant response to water deficits can help us to identify appropriate water-saving and irrigation methods. The goal of this study is to assess the potential of eight indices derived from a modified consumer-grade camera and a thermal camera for monitoring the relative water content (RWC) of maize. The study design was a randomized complete block design with three replications and 16 treatments with four levels of irrigation water percentage based on field capacity (100% Fc, 80% Fc, 60% Fc and 40% Fc), and four levels of nitrogen (without nitrogen, 100 kg N/ha, 200 kg N/ha and 300 kg N/ha) were used. RWC values were used to evaluate the performance of the eight crop water stress indicators. The results showed that the best performance results of the studied vegetation indices were DANS, CTSD and CTCV, respectively. As observed, R2 values were 0.88, 0.76 and 0.67, respectively.