CEREAL CROP IDENTIFICATION USING SENTINEL2 TIME SERIES, CASE OF SIDI BEL ABBES AREA

Abstract. The department of Sidi Bel Abbes is considered among the primary region producing cereal at the national level in Algeria. The study that we conducted is based on time series analysis using Sentinel2 images to monitor the cultivated cereal crops, combined with the field data including cereal plots for the growing season of 2020–2021.The methodology adopted in this study focused mainly on the processing of a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series. The analysis of the NDVI time series from October to July 2021, allowed us to determine the typical profiles of cereal crops, based on thresholding obtained to extract the areas cultivated by cereal crops. The geographical distribution of cereal in terms of area represents a high density of green biomass in the highlands and a low density of vegetation towards the plain and the highlands of the northwest area. The analysis of the profile’s growth for the cereal crops, allowed us to understand the behavior of the cereal crop during its development and to catch the relationship of these behaviors, the meteorological conditions and the agricultural practices followed.