UAV-Based Estimation of Tea Leaf Area Index in Mountainous Terrain: Integrating Topographic Correction and Interpretable Machine Learning

Leaf Area Index (LAI) is a fundamental parameter for characterizing the growth of tea (Camellia sinensis L. ). However, in rugged mountainous regions, the combined effects of topographic relief and canopy structural heterogeneity severely constrain the accuracy of UAV-based multispectral LAI retrieval. This study develops an integrated framework combining topographic correction with interpretable machine learning to improve LAI estimation. We utilized a UAV multispectral dataset collected during the peak growing season from a typical tea-growing region in Fujian Province, China (altitude range: 58–186 m), comprising a total of 90 samples. Three topographic correction methods, including Sun–Canopy–Sensor (SCS), SCS with C correction (SCS+C), and Minnaert+SCS, were evaluated in combination with Linear Regression (LR), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) models. Results indicated that the SCS+C algorithm outperformed other methods by effectively accounting for direct and diffuse radiation components, thereby reducing topographic dependence while maintaining radiometric consistency across heterogeneous surfaces. The XGBoost model combined with SCS+C correction achieved the highest performance (R2 = 0. 8930, RMSE = 0. 6676, nRMSE = 7. 93%, MAE = 0. 4936, Bias = −0. 0836). SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis revealed a structure-dominated retrieval mechanism, in which red-band textural features (CorrelationR) exhibited higher importance than conventional vegetation indices. Compared with previous studies that primarily focus on either topographic correction or model development, this study provides quantitative insights into the underlying retrieval mechanisms. This framework improves the precision of tea LAI retrieval in complex terrains and provides a robust methodological basis for digital management in mountainous agriculture.