Differences in landscape surface temperature within organic and conventional fields - territory of northern and central Bohemia

Bc. Patrik Manda

Master's thesis

Abstract:

This thesis focuses on the impact of agriculture on the local climate, namely differences in land surface temperature (LST), regarding two different types of management (organic or conventional), using remote sensing data (Landsat 8 satellite). Based on processing and calculations of the thermal images, which capture the 3-year period (2015, 2016 and 2017) and cover the territory of northern and central Bohemia, the basis for monitoring LST differences between organic and conventional fields has been created. For the following analysis, a computational script has been developed to monitor the trend of these differences and statistically test them. The output from this thesis shows that a certain trend of LST changes between different types of fields actually exists and is even periodically repeated within each tested year. Based on the results, it is relatively likely to say that LST is higher on organic fields in spring and summer (from March to August) and lower in autumn and winter (from September to February) in comparison to conventional ones. LST difference fluctuations at 95% significance are within ± 0,7°C.

Keywords

remote sensing, land surface temperature, organic farming, conventional farming

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 17. 4. 2018

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Vratislava Janovská, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Environmental Sciences

Master programme / field:
Engineering Ecology / Nature Conservation