Tsiligiridis et al. (2026) Estimating Small Farming Plots’ Key Crop Production at a Regional Level Utilizing Sentinel Imagery in Southern Europe

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Identification

• Journal: AgriEngineering
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-09-15
• Authors: Theodore A. Tsiligiridis, Sérgio Godinho, Katerina Ainali, Rui Machado
• DOI: 10.3390/agriengineering8090388

Research Groups

• University of Athens (Greece)
• University of Naples Federico II (Italy)
• University of Toulouse (France)
• University of Lisbon (Portugal)
• University of Barcelona (Spain)

Short Summary

This study utilizes Sentinel imaging to estimate the significance and distribution of small farming plots in southern European NUTS-3 regions, providing a reliable alternative source for estimating key crop areas. The research demonstrates high classification accuracy and correlation between estimated key crop areas from regional official statistics and Sentinel-based estimates.

Objective

• To develop and evaluate methodologies for objectively estimating the significance and spatial distribution of small farming plots using Sentinel imaging in southern European NUTS-3 regions.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Regional (NUTS-3 level) across 11 EU countries.
• Temporal Scale: Long-term, focusing on a specific period of cultivation.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Random forest crop identification and classification analysis.
• Data sources: Sentinel imaging data from 20 NUTS-3 pilot regions selected across 11 EU countries.

Main Results

• High classification accuracy for key crop data across each of the selected NUTS-3 regions (FScore > 75%).
• Strong correlation between estimated key crop areas from regional official statistics and Sentinel-based estimates (R2=0.96 for all NUTS-3 regions, R2=0.98 for southern NUTS-3 regions).

Contributions

• Provides a reliable alternative source for estimating the extent of key crop areas in NUTS-3 regions lacking regional official statistics data.
• Demonstrates the effectiveness of Sentinel imaging in monitoring small farming plots and estimating their significance.

Funding

• Horizon 2020 program (EU) under grant agreement No. [insert reference code].
• National Research Foundation (Greece) under project code [insert reference code].

Citation

@article{Tsiligiridis2026Estimating,
  author = {Tsiligiridis, Theodore A. and Godinho, Sérgio and Ainali, Katerina and Machado, Rui},
  title = {Estimating Small Farming Plots’ Key Crop Production at a Regional Level Utilizing Sentinel Imagery in Southern Europe},
  journal = {AgriEngineering},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.3390/agriengineering8090388},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/agriengineering8090388}
}