The Application of Remote Sensing Techniques and Spectral Analyzes to Assess the Content of Heavy Metals in Soil – A Case Study of Barania Góra Reserve, Poland

The understanding of the spatial and temporal dynamics of farmland processes is essential to ensure the proper crop monitoring and early decision making needed to support efficient resource management in agriculture. By creating appropriate crop management strategies, one can increase harvest efficiency while reducing costs, waste, chemical spraying, and inhibiting the impact of biotic and abiotic factors on crop stress. Only reliable spatial information makes it possible to comprehend the influence of various factors on the environment. The main objective of the research presented in the paper was to assess the possibility of using maps of vegetation and soil indices, such as NDVI, SAVI, IRECI, CIred-edge, PSRI and HMSSI, calculated on the basis of images from the Sentinel-2 satellite, to qualitatively determine the increased amount of heavy metals in the soil in the areas of small agricultural plots around the Barania Góra nature reserve in Poland. The conducted pilot project shows that the spectral indices: NDVI, SAVI, IRECI, CIred-edge, PSRI, and HMSSI, calculated on the basis of images from Sentinel-2, have the potential to assess the content of nickel zinc, chromium and cobalt in the soil on agricultural plots. However, the confirmation of the obtained results requires continuation of the research.