Highquality turf demands high water and nutrient inputs, as well as intensive maintenance. Due to decreasingwater availability and high maintenance costs, efficient methods of water and fertilizer delivery and identification ofsitespecific management areas are required. In the turf industry and turf research, visual assessment has been used as thestandard to evaluate turf response to management practices and treatments. This method is subject to bias due to personalperceptions and visual preferences. In addition, the cause of stress cannot be readily determined by visual inspection. In thisresearch, multispectral radiometry was used as an alternative method of rating visual quality. The seasonal vegetation trendwas observed using visual assessment and vegetation indices, response to nitrogen application, effect of mowing practice,and response to irrigation methods (subsurface drip irrigation and sprinkler irrigation) of bermudagrass turf wereinvestigated. Vegetation indices (NDVI, RVI, and SDI) correlated well with visual quality ratings (r 2 = 0.73, r 2 = 0.71, andr 2 = 0.70, respectively; P = 0.05). Mowing practice affected the spectral response in most wavelengths, increasing valuesbetween 3% and 4% in the visible and midinfrared ranges. Wavelengths in the nearinfrared range were not affected. Incontrast, values for vegetation indices decreased as a result of mowing practices.
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Fitz-Rodríguez et al. (2002) studied this question.