Paper · 2026 · Smart Agricultural Technology

Intelligent diagnosis of winter wheat water stress based on UAV multi-modal remote sensing

Xiaohui Kuang; Qian Cheng; Deshan Chen; et al.

11
claims
26
verbatim quotes
1
citations
2
research areas
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Open access · cc-by-nc-nd

Abstract

Water stress severely affects the normal growth and development of winter wheat, resulting in a decrease in both yield and quality. To address the limitations and time lags of traditional water stress monitoring methods, this study develops a winter wheat water stress classification model using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-based multi-source remote sensing data and machine learning algorithms. The experiment was conducted at the Xinxiang Experimental Base of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Henan Province, China, during the winter wheat growing season, involving 120 plots under four irrigation levels. Vegetation indices (VIs) and thermal infrared (TIR) features were extracted by acquiring water stress imagery during three critical growth stages of wheat: heading stage, flowering stage, and filling stage. Unlike many previous UAV-based water stress studies that mainly focus on a single growth stage or a single type of sensor, this study evaluates VI and TIR fusion across multiple key growth stages under controlled irrigation gradients and systematically compares three machine-learning classifiers. The performance of three classifiers, Random Forest (RF), eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), and Support Vector Machine (SVM), in water stress identification was evaluated. The results indicated that classification performance varied across single growth stages. Notably, multi-source sensor data fusion consistently achieved the highest classification accuracy across all stages, outperforming single-source data. The SVM model achieved classification accuracy, recall, and F1 score all exceeding 91%, with the flowering stage being particularly outstanding, achieving an accuracy of 97.22%, precision of 97.78%, recall of 97.22%, and F1 score of 97.27%. After merging multiple growth stages, the fusion of multi-source sensor data still showed the best performance. The SVM model had the highest classification accuracy (82.41%), precision (83.71%), recall (82.41%), and F1 score (81.93%). In summary, the SVM classifier fusing VIs and TIR features exhibited excellent performance in classifying wheat water stress. This study effectively achieved non-destructive, accurate, and rapid monitoring of winter wheat water stress, providing technical support for precision agriculture and water management.

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Claims 11

Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Fusing multi-source sensor data gave the highest classification accuracy of winter wheat water stress across all growth stages, outperforming single-source data.

Taxon
winter wheatTriticum aestivumt0
Treatment
multi-source sensor data fusione1
Outcome
classification accuracye1
Direction
outperforminge1
Qualifier
across all stagese1
Comparator
single-source datae1

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Triticum aestivum
Triticum aestivum · TaxonRasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“diagnosis of winter wheat water stress”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 12–50 · show in text ↑
e1

“multi-source sensor data fusion consistently achieved the highest classification accuracy across all stages, outperforming single-source data”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1404–1545 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

The SVM classifier reached classification accuracy, recall and F1 score above 91% in the single-stage analyses.

Taxon
winter wheatTriticum aestivumt0
Outcome
classification accuracy, recall, and F1 scoree2
Value
exceeding 91%e2

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Triticum aestivum
Triticum aestivum · TaxonRasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“diagnosis of winter wheat water stress”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 12–50 · show in text ↑
e2

“The SVM model achieved classification accuracy, recall, and F1 score all exceeding 91%”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1547–1633 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

At the flowering stage the SVM classifier reached an accuracy of 97.22%.

Taxon
winter wheatTriticum aestivumt0
Organ / stage
flowering stagee3
Outcome
accuracye3
Value
97.22%e3

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Triticum aestivum
Triticum aestivum · TaxonRasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“diagnosis of winter wheat water stress”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 12–50 · show in text ↑
e3

“with the flowering stage being particularly outstanding, achieving an accuracy of 97.22%, precision of 97.78%, recall of 97.22%, and F1 score of 97.27%”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1635–1786 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

At the flowering stage the SVM classifier reached a precision of 97.78%.

Taxon
winter wheatTriticum aestivumt0
Organ / stage
flowering stagee3
Outcome
precisione3
Value
97.78%e3

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Triticum aestivum
Triticum aestivum · TaxonRasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“diagnosis of winter wheat water stress”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 12–50 · show in text ↑
e3

“with the flowering stage being particularly outstanding, achieving an accuracy of 97.22%, precision of 97.78%, recall of 97.22%, and F1 score of 97.27%”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1635–1786 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

At the flowering stage the SVM classifier reached a recall of 97.22%.

Taxon
winter wheatTriticum aestivumt0
Organ / stage
flowering stagee3
Outcome
recalle3
Value
97.22%e3

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Triticum aestivum
Triticum aestivum · TaxonRasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“diagnosis of winter wheat water stress”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 12–50 · show in text ↑
e3

“with the flowering stage being particularly outstanding, achieving an accuracy of 97.22%, precision of 97.78%, recall of 97.22%, and F1 score of 97.27%”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1635–1786 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

At the flowering stage the SVM classifier reached an F1 score of 97.27%.

Taxon
winter wheatTriticum aestivumt0
Organ / stage
flowering stagee3
Outcome
F1 scoree3
Value
97.27%e3

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Triticum aestivum
Triticum aestivum · TaxonRasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“diagnosis of winter wheat water stress”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 12–50 · show in text ↑
e3

“with the flowering stage being particularly outstanding, achieving an accuracy of 97.22%, precision of 97.78%, recall of 97.22%, and F1 score of 97.27%”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1635–1786 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

After merging growth stages, the SVM classifier reached the highest classification accuracy of 82.41%.

Taxon
winter wheatTriticum aestivumt0
Outcome
classification accuracye4
Value
82.41%e4
Qualifier
After merging multiple growth stagese5

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Triticum aestivum
Triticum aestivum · TaxonRasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“diagnosis of winter wheat water stress”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 12–50 · show in text ↑
e4

“The SVM model had the highest classification accuracy (82.41%), precision (83.71%), recall (82.41%), and F1 score (81.93%)”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1900–2022 · show in text ↑
e5

“After merging multiple growth stages, the fusion of multi-source sensor data still showed the best performance”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1788–1898 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

After merging growth stages, the SVM classifier reached a precision of 83.71%.

Taxon
winter wheatTriticum aestivumt0
Outcome
precisione4
Value
83.71%e4
Qualifier
After merging multiple growth stagese5

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Triticum aestivum
Triticum aestivum · TaxonRasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“diagnosis of winter wheat water stress”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 12–50 · show in text ↑
e4

“The SVM model had the highest classification accuracy (82.41%), precision (83.71%), recall (82.41%), and F1 score (81.93%)”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1900–2022 · show in text ↑
e5

“After merging multiple growth stages, the fusion of multi-source sensor data still showed the best performance”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1788–1898 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

After merging growth stages, the SVM classifier reached a recall of 82.41%.

Taxon
winter wheatTriticum aestivumt0
Outcome
recalle4
Value
82.41%e4
Qualifier
After merging multiple growth stagese5

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Triticum aestivum
Triticum aestivum · TaxonRasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“diagnosis of winter wheat water stress”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 12–50 · show in text ↑
e4

“The SVM model had the highest classification accuracy (82.41%), precision (83.71%), recall (82.41%), and F1 score (81.93%)”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1900–2022 · show in text ↑
e5

“After merging multiple growth stages, the fusion of multi-source sensor data still showed the best performance”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1788–1898 · show in text ↑
Method / resourceobservedoriginal resultpositivemeasured

Claim · model-written summary

After merging growth stages, the SVM classifier reached an F1 score of 81.93%.

Taxon
winter wheatTriticum aestivumt0
Outcome
F1 scoree4
Value
81.93%e4
Qualifier
After merging multiple growth stagese5

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Triticum aestivum
Triticum aestivum · TaxonRasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“diagnosis of winter wheat water stress”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 12–50 · show in text ↑
e4

“The SVM model had the highest classification accuracy (82.41%), precision (83.71%), recall (82.41%), and F1 score (81.93%)”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1900–2022 · show in text ↑
e5

“After merging multiple growth stages, the fusion of multi-source sensor data still showed the best performance”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1788–1898 · show in text ↑
Observationobservedoriginal resultmixedmeasured

Claim · model-written summary

Classification performance of winter wheat water stress varied across single growth stages.

Taxon
winter wheatTriticum aestivumt0
Outcome
classification performancee6
Qualifier
varied across single growth stagese6

Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Triticum aestivum
Triticum aestivum · TaxonRasbak · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons ↗

Verbatim

t0

“diagnosis of winter wheat water stress”

✓ located verbatim in the source · title, characters 12–50 · show in text ↑
e6

“The results indicated that classification performance varied across single growth stages”

✓ located verbatim in the source · abstract, characters 1305–1393 · show in text ↑