2011 Update Using Remote Sensing Technology

The California Avocado Commission’s crop estimating team in conjunction with GeoSpatial Partners, LLC uses the latest in remote sensing techniques to assess avocado acreage in production.  As technology continues to advance refinements in our third generation of remote sensing techniques were applied to satellite imagery collected in May 2011.  The imagery processing techniques include; segmentation into homogenous polygons, retention of tree crop polygons, calculation of average crop canopy moisture and vegetation indices, analysis of change maps from previous inventories, and classification of avocado groves into four categories; producing, topped/stumped, new/young, and abandoned.  Aerial imagery (for a real-world view), and satellite imagery (for spectral and temporal data) areintegrated into previously classified avocado acreage and analyzed for current condition for five primary avocado growing counties; San Diego, Riverside,  Ventura, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo.Other minor counties acreage is estimated based on ancillary data from county agricultural commissioners and our grower community.  The results of the avocado acreage inventory including the CAC crop team application of varietal break down are:

Historical Acreage Inventory Summaries

• May 2010
• May 2009 - Uses 2005 data for San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Uses 2009 data for Riverside and San Diego Counties.