Semantic Web Techniques for Extracting and Analyzing of Cropland Abandonment in Hilly Areas

Abstract

Due to rising rural labor costs, farmland abandonment is common in China's hilly areas. Timely, accurate extraction of its spatiotemporal changes is crucial for sustainable farmland use. This study presents a novel approach for extracting abandoned cropland using NDVI time series from Sentinel-2 satellite images, exploiting the difference in vegetation phenology between abandoned and cultivated croplands. Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithm was used to determine the similarity between NDVI time-series curves of different cropland types. The similarity metrics were used to find the optimal NDVI threshold for abandoned cropland through F1-score evaluation. The method's overall accuracy is 92.4%, higher than comparison methods at 84.60% and 75.6%. The approach captures year-round vegetation changes, expands time dimension data, and improves accuracy. Spatiotemporal analysis revealed decreased patch size, increased shape complexity, and more dispersed distribution of abandoned cropland over time. Major factors were proximity to settlements, roads, water bodies.