Capability of Landsat 8 satellite images to estimate the area under cultivation of saffron (case study: city of Torbat Heydarieh)

Saffron is a strategic product. It is necessary to manage the programming principles in order to estimate acreage and production. Therefore, the speed and accuracy of such assessments is very important. Using remote sensing techniques for providing updated data and high functionality as well as the possibility of studying a wide range of image analyses with an acceptable precision can help in the assessment. In the present research, the area under cultivation of saffron in the city of Torbat Heydarieh was evaluated using Landsat 8 sensor data. After applying the primary processing on satellite images with using conventional techniques, satellite imagery processing including false color band combination, principal component analysis, vegetation index (NDVI, SAVI, EVI, DVI, RVI and TSAVI) and supervised classification of land under saffron cultivation were identified. Map production was done due to the fact that the earth was assessed via GPS in order to assess the classification. Kappa coefficient and overall accuracy were %88 and %98, respectively. The area under cultivation of saffron in this study was estimated to be 19503.4572 hectares. The results indicated that Landsat 8 satellite images have a high potential for rapid separation and identification of the area under cultivation of saffron in the region with relatively good accuracy and are appropriate tools to be used on a regional scale.