sensors

Article
A Methodology Based on Machine Learning and Soft
Computing to Design More Sustainable Agriculture Systems
Jose M. Cadenas , M. Carmen Garrido and Raquel Martínez-España *

Department of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
* Correspondence: raquel.m.e@um.es

Abstract: Advances in new technologies are allowing any field of real life to benefit from using
these ones. Among of them, we can highlight the IoT ecosystem making available large amounts
of information, cloud computing allowing large computational capacities, and Machine Learning
techniques together with the Soft Computing framework to incorporate intelligence. They constitute
a powerful set of tools that allow us to define Decision Support Systems that improve decisions in a
wide range of real-life problems. In this paper, we focus on the agricultural sector and the issue of
sustainability. We propose a methodology that, starting from times series data provided by the IoT
ecosystem, a preprocessing and modelling of the data based on machine learning techniques is carried
out within the framework of Soft Computing. The obtained model will be able to carry out inferences
in a given prediction horizon that allow the development of Decision Support Systems that can help
the farmer. By way of illustration, the proposed methodology is applied to the specific problem of
early frost prediction. With some specific scenarios validated by expert farmers in an agricultural
cooperative, the benefits of the methodology are illustrated. The evaluation and validation show the
effectiveness of the proposal.

Keywords: sustainable agriculture; time series forecast; Soft Computing; machine learning; IoT

1. Introduction
Citation: Cadenas, J.M.; Garrido,
The role of technology in agriculture has particular relevance in the improvement
M.C.; Martínez-España, R. A
of agriculture. A complete scheme of activities related to technology in agriculture is
Methodology Based on Machine
Learning and Soft Computing to
presented in [1], where authors analyse and identify sectors that can take advantage of
Design More Sustainable Agriculture
the latest advances in technology. Using new technologies, farmers can monitor their
Systems. Sensors 2023, 23, 3038. farms remotely and more accurately, and therefore, they are considered an essential tool
https://doi.org/10.3390/s23063038 for sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture is a concept that has become very
important today. To be sustainable, agriculture must meet the food needs of present and
Academic Editor: Xiaoshuan Zhang
future generations at prices that are reasonable for consumers and sufficient to maintain
Received: 6 February 2023 the economy of the agricultural sector without endangering the health of the environment
Revised: 27 February 2023 or the quantity of natural resources. Sustainable agriculture is a system of agricultural
Accepted: 8 March 2023 production that is resource-conserving, environmentally sound, and economically viable.
Published: 11 March 2023 The aim is to produce healthy food with respectful practices for the soil, air, and water and
to respect the rights and health of farmers.
Sustainable agriculture faces problems such as fertility loss, water scarcity, biodiversity
depletion, pesticide pollution, climate change, and how it affects agriculture. In particular,
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
climate change is causing major losses in agriculture, both in terms of product quality and
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
farmers’ economies. Agricultural insurance is becoming increasingly restrictive and costly.
This article is an open access article
Thus, farmers have to look for new solutions to mitigate crop damage without investing
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
large amounts of economic and/or environmental resources.
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
Sustainable agriculture, and specifically precision agriculture, is considered to be
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ an area of major interest within the objectives of sustainable development. Precision
4.0/). agriculture is a promising task for economic stabilisation in developing countries [2] and

Sensors 2023, 23, 3038. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23063038 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors

Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 2 of 16

plays an important role in making agriculture more sustainable. It tries to measure crop
qualities, soil, and climatic factors to apply the best treatment at the right place at the
right time.
Precision agriculture is a discipline that began to be implemented in the early 1990s
with the initial objective of increasing profitability and reducing environmental impact by
using integrated systems within information technologies, [3]. Every day more and more
agricultural processes are beginning to have and use technology to improve their proce-
dures, reducing economic and environmental costs and increasing profits, achieving a more
sustainable agriculture [4]. In the process of adapting and contributing to sustainability,
farmers need real and reliable sources of information and knowledge to make decisions
more sustainable. Advances in technology and computational paradigms provide farmers
with new methodologies to improve their crops [5].
Among these paradigms, IoT and cloud computing have become very relevant nowa-
days [6], making a large amount of information available to users in any real environment
such as smart homes [7], the industrial market [8], and agriculture [9] among other areas.
In the agricultural world, IoT and computing have revolutionised the sector, applying
technologies to achieve service upgrades, cost savings, increased production, and better
control and balance between economic and environmental sustainability [10]. In traditional
agriculture, farmers have made decisions based on their experience, and although often
right, at other times, both economic and environmental resources are wasted. Precision
farming, coupled with computing and IoT paradigms, has improved these processes and
reduced the economic and environmental impact. For example, in terms of spraying against
pests [11], traditional farmers sprayed in a preventive way with highly polluting products
without knowing the level of pests they had in their crops. Now, there are crop pest predic-
tion techniques that help to spray at the right time and with the right products [12]. Thus,
now with precision farming, the farmer saves on the cost of crop protection products, and
the environment gains in terms of less pollution. Another example of improving sustain-
ability with new technologies is irrigation control. By predicting temperatures, as well as
predicting soil moisture levels, the amount of water used on crops can be reduced. Again,
new technologies help to achieve economic sustainability in the reduction of water costs
and environmental sustainability in the use of water [13].
Thus, new technologies help the agricultural sector to be more sustainable. However,
many of the proposed techniques are not deployed in real environments, and one of the
problems is the lack of a methodology that includes the steps and the way to implement
the new technologies in agricultural problems. Hence, the novel proposal of this paper
develops a generic methodology, which can be applied to agricultural problems, with the
aim of having a final Decision Support System to make decisions with implications for
economic and environmental improvement. To build a Decision Support System, it is
necessary to have data. The IoT poses through all kinds of sensors to collect and send data
related to farmland. This information collected by sensors, and depending on the scope
of the application, can contain numerical values following the trend of a time series. This
indicates that there are dependencies on one value, the next, and the previous one. The
collected information generates significant amounts of data that can be analysed remotely
and in real-time using appropriate Machine Learning techniques. With the use of these
techniques, patterns can be found from the collected data, and predictions can be made,
providing intelligence to the Decision Support Systems. Studies have shown that Decision
Support Systems applied to agriculture contribute significantly to long-term sustainable
development. However, the full benefits of Decision Support Systems are not yet realised,
as they need to be adapted to the needs of farmers [4].
This paper proposes the design of a novel methodology aimed at facilitating the
creation of a Decision Support System to address agricultural problems. The final system
will be embedded in a mobile device where usability is simple, transparent, and flexible for
the farmer. In this way, the farmer can benefit from the use of applications with specialised
information about crops and techniques to improve decision-making in crop management,
Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 3 of 16

changes in their production systems, etc. The choice of the mobile phone as the final
device is based on the fact that there are studies that indicate that farmers are using their
smartphones more as work tools than for entertainment and that they prefer to access the
Internet using their mobile phone rather than other devices [14].
As the main characteristics of the methodology, we can highlight that it is general to
address agricultural problems to create a Decision Support System using computing and
IoT paradigms, is independent of particular techniques and technologies, is designed to
address problems that improve the environmental and economic sustainability of farmers,
and can deal with one of the disadvantages of the IoT, which are precision errors in sensors
and possible delivery failures. The methodology is embedded in the Soft Computing
framework that allows dealing with these problems using a representation of data that
captures the true nature of them.
The methodology takes as a starting point the information collected in the IoT ecosys-
tem in the form of time series data, and its ultimate goal is the creation of a Decision Support
System embedded in a mobile phone. In a general way, the methodology is defined based
on the following stages: (1) obtaining data from IoT and cloud services, (2) preprocessing
the data in the Soft Computing framework, (3) extracting knowledge using appropriate
Machine Learning techniques, and (4) defining a set of rules that constitute the main axis of
the Decision Support System.
The study developed in this paper is organised as follows: Section 2 presents a non-
exhaustive review of proposals for solving real problems related to sustainable agriculture
from time series data that can obtain advantages of the design of a general methodology.
Section 3 details the proposed methodology by presenting each of its stages. Section 4
presents a study case where the proposed methodology is applied step by step to the crop
frost problem, illustrating both the environmental and economic benefits obtained in terms
of sustainability. Finally, Section 5 shows the conclusions of the study and future work lines.

2. Background
As mentioned above, the role of technology in agriculture has particular relevance in
improving agriculture. The use of paradigms such as machine learning and Soft Computing
can help the development of sustainable agriculture by providing the information obtained
through IoT with Artificial Intelligence [15]. The joint use of these technologies helps the
design of Decision Support Systems that lead to the development of sustainable agriculture.
Within this field, these technologies have been used, among others, in the prediction of
adverse weather conditions, optimisation of water resource management, optimisation of
crop productivity, etc.
In this section, we review, without being exhaustive, some studies that try to introduce
benefits in agriculture to make it more sustainable from the information provided by
time series datasets collected from the IoT ecosystem and the use of Artificial Intelligence
paradigms. The aim is to show the wide range of possible benefits rather than to go deeper
into any of them.
As a consequence of climate change, the construction of Decision Support Systems that
help farmers to be aware of the arrival of possible adverse weather phenomena such as
frost, floods, etc., is getting more and more important. The problem arises because weather
phenomena are becoming more frequent, according to experts [16]. Thus, to address these
problems, we can find various works in literature. In this way, in [17], the authors use time
series datasets to predict short/long term low temperatures by capturing the dependencies
of environmental factors through causal and associative models. In [18], frost prediction is
carried out in advance using deep learning techniques using a long short/term memory
model. In [19], models of the rainfall are obtained using deep learning architectures and
time series datasets to minimise the risks caused by rainfall and reduce the economic risks
and, therefore, maximising profits.
As it is well known, water is a vitally important resource in agriculture and has been
considered one of the critical issues in the future that may threaten food security. For this
Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 4 of 16

reason, studies have been carried out to measure the quality of the water and optimise
the quantity of water used for crops. For example, in [20], the quality of drained water
that is reused for agriculture is studied using neural network models that will help to
manage the resource and make decisions about irrigation water resources. An important
factor in managing the water resource in crop production is the accurate prediction of
evapotranspiration. The control of this factor can optimize the amount of water needed.
To address this control, in [21], the authors present the development of a computational
method for estimating the monthly mean evapotranspiration of arid and semi-arid areas is
carried out.
Another of the most important issue in agriculture is improving crop management.
In this sense, yield prediction will enable the farmer to improve crop management to match
crop supply to demand and increase productivity. In the same way, the productivity and
quality of crops can be improved by detecting the appearance of diseases at an early stage
and carrying out a more appropriate treatment. Thus, in [22], the authors carry out the
wheat yield production from satellite images to receive measurements of crop and soil
growth. In [23], a classification of the leaves of several plants is carried out to distinguish
between healthy and diseased leaves based on a neural network and images of the leaves.
Other work is presented in [24] where the detection of diseases in wheat is carried out to
optimise the use of fertilisers and fungicides according to the needs of the plant.
Regarding the right estimation of crop soil conditions improves soil management by
the farmer. Nevertheless, the obtaining of soil measurements is generally expensive and
time-consuming, and the process can be improved by using Machine Learning techniques.
Some works in this line are [25,26]. In the first one, soil drying is evaluated from evapotran-
spiration and rainfall data to favour decision-making in crop planning. In the second one,
the authors develop a Machine Learning technique to obtain soil temperature at different
depths with the aim of optimising soil management.
As a summary, many agricultural domains can obtain benefits from using new tech-
nologies, and the methodology proposed in this work defines a series of steps to follow to
achieve this objective.

3. A Methodology Based on IOT Ecosystem and Machine Learning in the Soft

Computing Framework
New developments in IoT and cloud computing technologies enable applications to
have a wealth of information from any domain in real-time. Depending on the applica-
tion domain, the information comes in consecutive time intervals resulting in time series
datasets. The information can be processed, and knowledge can be obtained from it using
Machine Learning techniques; however, before using such techniques, it is necessary to
apply preprocessing to the data [27]. There are many data preprocessing tasks, but the
most common are: using the Fourier transform to shift the series to the frequency domain,
using statistical values such as the mean to make an aggregate symbolic approximation,
performing a transformation of the values to depict the time evolution, etc.
This section details the proposed methodology for preprocessing time series datasets
to be used in Machine Learning techniques. As a result of applying the methodology, a new
dataset that can be used efficiently by Machine Learning techniques is created while the
quality of the original information is maintained. The model obtained after applying the
Machine Learning techniques will be the base of the designed Decision Support System.
The main stages that make up the methodology are as follows:
1. Data collection. The starting point of the methodology is the collection of data repre-
sentative of the agricultural domain to be solved. This data collection will be carried
out through the IoT ecosystem and cloud services. Therefore, the methodology is
integrated into the FIWARE architecture.
2. Preprocessing of time series data. The processing of time series data will allow synthe-
sising the number of attributes using the imprecise representation of an attribute or set
of attributes without losing information. This will be carried out in the Soft Computing
 Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 5 of 16

framework. Furthermore, the preprocessing uses lagging attributes to maintain the

connection of the time series in the data.
3. Application of Machine Learning techniques. In this stage, the Machine Learning
techniques used must be capable of dealing directly with imprecise information with
two objectives. The first objective is to select the most important instances to build
simple, useful, and portable models that can be used in embedded devices without
an internet connection. The second objective is to obtain a useful model to solve the
problem.
4. Obtaining the Decision Support System by defining a set of rules that allow the farmer
to make a decision based on the model obtained in the previous stage and the data
provided inIoT
real-time by the Context Orion Broker of the FIWARE architecture.
Cloud
IoT ecosystem integrating the proposed methodology has the structure shown in
Figure 1. The stages describing the preprocessing and construction of the model are shown
serves datasets
FIWARE
in Figure 2.
d
IoT Cloud
Time Series Data Decision support system
asets
Instance FIWARE
serves datasets
grouping
Remote
Interval/fuzzy model Machine learning with
Pre-procesing data
ion transformation Time Series Data
imprecise data
s Taking a Lagged Instance Local Decision
with imprecise data
Machine learning

grouping
decision model Remote rules Taking a
attributes Interval/fuzzy Pre-procesing data
model
transformation

Lagged
Instance
Local
selection decision
model
attributes
with imprecise data
Instance selection
with imprecise data

1 time
t-1 t t+1

Figure 1. Proposed methodology embedded within an IoT ecosystem.

Time Series Data

Instance
with imprecise data
Machine learning

grouping
Remote
Interval/fuzzy model
Pre-procesing data
transformation

Lagged Local
attributes model

Instance selection
with imprecise data

Figure 2. Diagram of preprocessing and model building.

Each stage of this methodology is detailed in the following subsections.

3.1. Data Collection

As mentioned above, the source of information is the IoT ecosystem and cloud services
that will form part of the methodology in two clearly differentiated areas:
• Collection of data from the IoT ecosystem and cloud services stored persistently.
The aim is to obtain information stored in datasets from different context providers
in the field of agriculture, such as different types of weather station sensors. It is,
Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 6 of 16

therefore, about historical data that will be used, after the appropriate preprocessing,
to obtain Machine Learning models that allow the construction of Decision Support
Systems. This historical data will comprise successive measurements made by the
different context providers in certain time intervals. Therefore, there is a temporal
dependence between the different instances that comprise the dataset. The use of this
data will be carried out offline.
• Obtaining data from context providers in real-time. Once the Decision Support System
has been built, it is necessary to obtain real-time data from the different context
providers to make an appropriate decision according to the scope of the application.
For example, if the application is designed to monitor the quality of a crop soil,
the data obtained in real-time from the soil properties could generate an alert to
farmers indicating that a certain threshold of shortage of fertility properties of their
crops, such as pH, salinity, and available plant nutrients has been reached. The use of
this data will be carried out online.
The designed application will be integrated into the FIWARE architecture. The FI-
WARE architecture consists of several components stored on a server. This server is
responsible for storing the information received from the sensors and different web services
provided by opendata, among others. In addition, the server is also responsible for making
the data available to the visualisation services in the user interfaces as well as providing
data to the intelligent data analysis module. The FIWARE architecture interacts with the
mobile application through a BackEnd service located on the server that connects the appli-
cation with the Orion Context Broker. The Orion Context Broker is a FIWARE component
that is responsible for providing the data corresponding to the mobile application, this
being a transparent process to the user. This component also connects with the framework
services that collect the data, being weather stations or farmers’ own sensors or open
data provided by meteorological services, agricultural companies, or official information
services, among others. The information collected from the different sources is stored
using a database, which can be structured like MySQL or unstructured like MongoDB, or a
combination of both. The information is received using JSON data type protocols.

3.2. Preparing the Dataset

3.2.1. Instance Grouping
When working with time series datasets, it is common to find datasets large in data
size and with high dimensionality as these datasets store the complete set of data provided
by the different measurement processes (in general, data continuously provided by sensors).
There are different proposals to deal with this problem [28].
The methodology, we propose, faces the problem of large data volume by performing
a clustering of instances that sometimes does not only solve the problem of data volume
but can be directly driven by the application. This clustering combines data into certain
intervals like each hour, each day, a week, or a month. The size of the clustering will depend
on the application.
Therefore, in the proposed methodology, as a first preprocessing step, a clustering of
instances will be carried out. For this purpose, a certain number of consecutive instances
are grouped together, and information representative of this grouping is added to the
dataset in the form of new attributes such as minimum, maximum, mean, and standard
deviation values, among others. Therefore, while this clustering leads to a reduction in the
volume of data (number of instances), it also leads to an increase in the number of attributes
describing each time series, and this can lead to an increase in dimensionality. This problem
of increased dimensionality will be solved in the following stages of the methodology. This
increase in dimensionality becomes more considerable in problems that require long-term
forecasting, as we will see later. The effect of clustering instances is illustrated in the first
step of Figure 3.
Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 7 of 16

Original attributes
{x1,x2,…,xn}

Instance grouping

Added attributes
{minx1, maxx1, medx1, stdx1,…, minxn, maxxn, medxn, stdxn}

Fuzzy/Interval transformation

Fuzzy/interval attributes
{fuzzyx1,…, fuzzyxn}/{intervalx1,…, intervalxn}

Adding lagged attributes

Lagged attributes
{…,fuzzyx1(t),…, fuzzyxn(t), fuzzyx1(t+1),…, fuzzyxn(t+1), fuzzyx1(t+2),…, fuzzyxn(t+2),…}
/{…,intervalx1(t),…, intervalxn(t), intervalx1(t+1),…, intervalxn(t+1), intervalx1(t+2),…, intervalxn(t+2),…}

Figure 3. Methodology for preprocesing data.

3.2.2. Interval/Fuzzy Transformation

The increase in the number of attributes in the dataset can be addressed by grouping
the attributes with crisp values associated with the same time series with attributes with
interval or fuzzy values. In these interval/fuzzy attributes, the information is captured,
and no loss of information occurs. Thus, there is no increase in the dimensionality of the
data. Figure 3 shows the original attribute clustering process.
Given that this methodological proposal involves incorporating attributes expressed
through fuzzy values, the following phases of the methodology will require the use of
Machine Learning techniques capable of dealing with this type of values, i.e., techniques
defined in the Soft Computing framework. The fact of using this type of technique also
allows us to carry out the treatment of missing data without making a great effort in
the methodology.
Missing values are one of the problems frequently encountered in the observation
or data recording process. It is important to address the need for completeness of the
observation data to be able to use it for advanced analyses. Conventional methods, such
as mean and mode imputation, elimination, and other strategies, are not good enough to
deal with missing values, as they may cause biases in the data [29]. In [30], it is proposed
to treat the missing values by expressing them as fuzzy values reflecting their true nature
and using the appropriate techniques for this type of value. Therefore, the data will be
completed and ready to use for another step of analysis or data mining.
In addition, the use of techniques capable of dealing with fuzzy values also allow the
possibility of working with time series datasets that incorporate nominal attributes. In this
case, each nominal attribute will be replaced by a discrete fuzzy attribute that summarises
the possibility that each value of the domain of that nominal attribute. Thus, given the
nominal attribute A with domain Ω A = {v1 , v2 , . . . , vn }, this attribute will be replaced by a
fuzzy attribute expressed by the membership function µ A = {v1 /µ1 , v2 /µ2 , . . . , vn /µn }.

3.2.3. Adding Lagged Attributes

Time series datasets are used to predict the value of some attribute at a future time
instant t + 1 from past values. In the proposed methodology, the time series dataset is
transformed by including lagged attributes.
Therefore, after the above transformations, the temporal correlation between con-
secutive instances of the dataset is captured by adding delayed attributes. These added
attributes allow us to capture a prediction horizon that will depend on the problem we
are dealing with. Thus, we will group in the same instance as many delayed attributes
Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 8 of 16

as the size of the prediction horizon. For example, in a problem with hourly information
and a prediction horizon of “x” hours, we will have to add “x” delayed attributes that
capture the temporal correlation between hours. . . , h − 1, h, h + 1, . . .. Depending on the
specific application in which the methodology is being applied, the prediction horizon can
be longer or shorter, and we can talk about short-term time series or long-term time series.
In either case, the inclusion of lagged attributes increases the dimension of the prob-
lem, so the reduction of attributes carried out by the fuzzy transformation allows for the
reduction of this dimension while capturing the true nature of the information. The effect
of this step of the methodology is shown in the last step of Figure 3.

3.3. Using Machine Learning Techniques

After carrying out the previous preprocessing process, the objective now is to obtain
a model of the data through the use of Machine Learning techniques that are capable of
working with imprecise data. This model will form part of the final Decision Support
System that will bring to the farmer the advantages and benefits provided by the Artificial
Intelligence research field and, more specifically, by Machine Learning and Soft Computing.
In this way, any farmer with a smartphone with or without an internet connection can
benefit from the advances in these disciplines.
We are, therefore, considering two ways of working with the methodology:
• Local mode: No internet connection to address the problem of lack of wireless signal
coverage that can easily occur in rural areas. In this case, the Decision Support System
will be hosted on the smartphone. In this working mode, it is important that the data
model has a space and time complexity optimised execution. For this reason, in this
working mode, it is proposed in the methodology to add an instance selection process
that again reduces the size of the set of instances with which the Machine Learning
technique will work.
• Remote mode: With internet connection. In this case, the Decision Support System
will be hosted on a cloud server and although time and space complexity are always
important, it is not crucial in this way of working.
These modes of work are reflected in the working scheme in Figure 2.

3.3.1. Instance Selection Process

In the case of working in local mode and to optimise the size of the data model, the next
step of the proposed methodology is to apply an instance selection process. The instance
selection technique has to be a preprocessing technique able to handle heterogeneous
attributes (nominal and numerical) with imprecise and crisp values. Among these tech-
niques, we can use the CNN technique [31] with the kNNimp technique [30] to classify
each instance and add it to the condensed dataset if it is not correctly classified with the
current condensed set. kNNimp technique allows the treatment of imprecise data for both
classification and regression. In general, we can use any instance selection technique based
on kNN nearest neighbours that takes as a basis the kNNimp technique that allows the
treatment of imprecise data.

3.3.2. Machine Learning Model

The Machine Learning model is the one that will be in the application so that the user
can obtain answers to the problem addressed. The model may be locally on the device or
stored in the cloud, depending on the type of mode (local, remote) that the user will use.
In addition, the techniques that create such a model in this methodology should be classi-
fication or regression techniques that can handle heterogeneous attributes and imprecise
and crisp values. Among the techniques available to perform the classification/regression
task with imperfect data we can find kNNimp [30], Fuzzy Random Forest, and FDT [32].
Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 9 of 16

3.4. Decision Support System

Once the Machine Learning model has been obtained, it is necessary to integrate it
into the Decision Support System that helps the user to make decisions in the application
environment. A general and intuitive way to build this Decision Support System is by
defining a set of rules that will be activated according to the output of the obtained model
and the real-time data provided by the IOT ecosystem through FIWARE.
In general, the rules will be of the form: if condition then action. This set of rules will
depend on the domain of the specific application being developed and must gather the
knowledge of the domain expert, the farmer, to define the behaviour of the rules, e.g., the
definition of which threshold values should define the activation of a rule (condition) and
the achievement of the action derived from this activation (action).
In the case of using a classification technique, it will be the value of the inferred class
that determines the action to be taken with rules of the form:
if class1 then Action1
if class2 then Action2
...
In the case of using a regression technique, the use of threshold values in the scope of
application will determine rules of the type:
if value ≤ threshold then Action1
if value > threshold then Action2

4. Study Case: Early Crop Frost Forecasting

In this section, we are going to focus on a specific problem where farmers could benefit
economically as well as improve the sustainability of their crops. Specifically, we will
follow the steps of the methodology to obtain a Decision Support System that, by means
of an early temperature prediction, will help farmers to make good decisions regarding
frost management. The final system will be validated by expert farmers advised by an
agricultural cooperative.
In the southeast of Spain, there are areas where temperatures from January to March
vary greatly. These temperatures reach warm values during the day but reach values below
zero during the night. These sudden changes in temperature produce harmful effects on
crops. In this area of Spain, where a large part of the crops are dedicated to fruit trees,
the daytime heat produces the flowering of the crops while the cold at night destroys this
flowering. However, farmers have various techniques to mitigate the effects of frost. These
techniques include thermal mulching to cover crops, sprinkler irrigation using the heat
released during icing, creating artificial fog, and heating cold air close to the ground by
burning several kinds of fuels [33].
This fight against frost needs an early and realistic prediction of the temperature
forecast for the immediate future to have enough time to deploy the techniques (to try not
to lose the crop) and because the use of these techniques represents a significant additional
cost that adds to the expenses faced by a farmer. This is where farmers can benefit from
the methodology proposed in this paper by taking advantage of the early forecast of the
temperature that will be reached on their land.
Therefore, the objective of this study case is to predict the temperature one hour in
advance based on information obtained from weather stations that are close to the crops
and are part of the IoT ecosystem.

4.1. Data Collection/Obtaining

As we have just mentioned, the information we are interested in this study case is
obtained from the IoT ecosystem by taking the weather stations closest (denoted by CWSi )
to 5 crops from different geographical areas of the Region of Murcia as context providers.
These weather stations are provided by The Murcian Institute of Agricultural and Food
Research and Development (IMIDA) [34].
Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 10 of 16

The IMIDA’s weather stations have the following ephemeris and sensors: rain gauge,
radiometer, data-logger, weather vane, and thermohygrometer. The obtained measures
are the following: “Radiation”, “Accumulated radiation”, “Rainfall”, “Humidity”, “Tem-
perature”, “Wind direction”, “Wind speed”, “Dew point”, and “Vapor pressure deficit”.
The IMIDA records these values every 5 minutes and therefore, this stored information
gives rise to the time series datasets that are used as starting point in this study case. A time
series dataset is obtained for each weather station.

4.2. Instance Grouping

As the objective is to carry out the prediction of the “Temperature” one hour later,
we are going to group the data obtained from each station 12 by 12 so that each instance
of the transformed dataset gathers information from one hour. To not lose information
in this grouping, those measurements with a significant variation during the course of
the hour are replaced by three attributes containing the minimum, mean, and maximum
values obtained during that hour. This is what happens with the measures “Radiation”,
“Humidity”, “Temperature”, and “Wind speed”.
The attributes obtained after grouping are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Instance attributes after grouping the data of each hour.

Instance Attributes
Minimum relative humidity (%) Mean relative humidity (%)
Maximum relative humidity (%) Minimum radiation (W/m2 )
Mean radiation (W/m2 ) Maximum radiation (W/m2 )
Accumulated radiation (W/m2 ) Wind direction (◦ C)
Minimum wind speed (m/s) Mean wind speed (m/s)
Maximum wind speed (m/s) Rainfall (mm)
Vapor pressure deficit (kPa) Dew point (◦ C)
Minimum temperature (◦ C) Mean temperature (◦ C)
Maximum temperature (◦ C)

In addition, in the datasets obtained after grouping, the instances with the attribute
“Minimum temperature” > 7 are deleted as they are not representative of the problem.

4.3. Interval/Fuzzy Transformation

After grouping instances, the number of attributes of the time series dataset is increased
(from 9 attributes to 17) not to lose information. This increase in dimensionality can be
decreased by the fuzzy transformation of the proposed methodology. Those attributes
that correspond to the minimum, average, and maximum values of the same measure are
represented by a fuzzy attribute that expresses the true nature of the information provided
by these attributes. The fuzzy attributes collecting the minimum, mean, and maximum
attributes for a measure are those shown in Table 2 with the subscript f .

Table 2. Fuzzy transformation of attributes.

Transformed Attributes Description

RH f Fuzzy relative humidity
Rf Fuzzy radiation
AR Accumulated radiation
WS f Fuzzy wind speed
WD Wind direction
RF Rainfall
VPD Vapor pressure deficit
DE Dew point
Tf Fuzzy temperature
Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 11 of 16

The fuzzy attributes are expressed by a trapezoidal function defined by the values
Version January 19, 2023 submitted to Sensors 10 of 13
[x1 , x2 , x3 , x4 ]. More concretely, the constructed fuzzy attributes are defined by the following
values: x1 = minimum, x2 = mean − 5%mean, x3 = mean + 5%mean, and x4 = maximum,
where minimum, mean, and maximum are the three values available for the same measurement.
the hour h − 1 , those obtained in the hour h , and the value of the minimum temperature 380
As commented above, incorporating fuzzy values in the datasets allows us to incorporate
alsothe
in thehour h + 1 of
treatment . Therefore, fromexpressed
missing values the historical dataset
as fuzzy collected
values from a weather
as [minimum station,
dom , minimumdom ,
381

we will obtain the final dataset by joining the values of two consecutive
maximumdom , maximumdom ] where minimumdom and maximumdom are the extremes of the instances and the 382

attributeof"Min.
domain Temperature"
the attribute. (Tmin ) of the next
This representation of ainstance.
missing The
valuestructure of that
expresses the final
it caninstance
be any 383

in the dataset is shown

value in the interval. in Table 4. 384

4.4. Adding Lagged Hour

Attributes
h−1
RH fInRthis
f
preprocessing
AR WS f WD step, RF theVPD time
DEdependence
Tf of the dataset is taken into account
adding lagged attributes. The number of lagged attributes to be added will depend on the
Hour h
size of the prediction horizon to be carried out and the particular problem being solved.
In this studyRH f Rsince
case, f AR theWS f WD is
objective RF VPD DEthe Ttemperature
to forecast f one hour in advance,
an instance is formed by the values obtained for the set ofh attributes
Hour +1 of Table 2 in the hour
h − 1, those obtained in the hour h, and the value of the minimum
T MI N temperature in the hour
h + 1. Therefore, from the historical dataset collected from a weather station, we obtain
Table
the 3. Attributes
final dataset bythat define
joining a final
the instance
values of twoinconsecutive
the dataset. This instance
instances andcaptures the temporal
the attribute “Min.
relationship between three consecutive hours.
Temperature” (TMI N ) of the next instance. The structure of the final instance in the dataset
is shown in Figure 4.

Hour h − 1 ( RH f , R f , AR, WS f , WD, RF, VPD, DE, T f )

Hour h ( RH f , R f , AR, WS f , WD, RF, VPD, DE, T f )
Hour h + 1 T MI N
Table 4. Attributes that define a final instance in the dataset. This instance captures the temporal
Figure 4. Attributes that define a final instance in the dataset. This instance captures the temporal
relationship between three consecutive hours.
relationship between three consecutive hours.

Obviously, we could add a higher number of lagged attributes but it is important

Obviously, we could add a higher number of lagged attributes but it is important 385
to maintain a balance between the accuracy of the model obtained and the size of the
to maintain a balance between the accuracy of the model obtained and the size of the 386
dataset. The choice of the number of lagged attributes is an adjustment to be made at the
dataset. The choice of the number of lagged attributes is an adjustment to be made at the 387
preprocessing step.
pre-processing step. 388
As a final result of this preprocessing step, we obtain a dataset for each of the 5 weather
As a final result of this pre-processing step, we obtain a dataset for each of the 5 389
stations considered in this study case. The characteristics of each of them are shown in
weather stations considered in this study case. The characteristics of each of them are 390
Table 3 where I is the number of instances of the dataset, Na the number of attributes,
shown in Table 5 where I is the number of instances of the dataset, Na is the total number 391
Nm and N f are the percentage of missing and fuzzy values respectively, and Nm f is
of attributes, Nnu and Nno are the number of numeric and nominal attributes respectively, 392
the percentage of instances with missing and/or fuzzy values. We use trapezoidal fuzzy
Nc is the number of classes, Nm and Nf are the percentage of missing and fuzzy values 393
numbers to represent the fuzzy attributes. This representation is reflected in a vector of
respectively, and Nmf is the percentage of instances with missing and/or fuzzy values. 394
four values of the form [a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 ] where ai are values of the measured attribute domain,
a1 ≤a2 ≤a3 ≤a4 , and a1 , a4 have a membership degree of 0, and a2 , a3 have a membership
Nameof 1.I
degree Na Nnu Nno Nc %Nm %Nf %Nmf
WS1 15185 19 18 1 2 0.02 44.4 100
WS23. Description
Table 11855 19of the 18five datasets
1 2in the studio44.4
0.01 case. 100
WS3Name9094 19 I18 1 2Na 0.02 44.4 %Nm100 %N f %Nm f
WS4 8470 19 18 1 2 0.01 44.4 100
CWS1 15,185 19 0.02 44.4 100
WS5CWS28296 19 11,855 18 1 2 19 0.01 44.40.01 100 44.4 100
TableCWS
5. Description
3 of9094
the five datasets 19 0.02
in the studio case. 44.4 100
CWS4 8470 19 0.01 44.4 100
CWS5 8296 19 0.01 44.4 100

4.5. Instance selection process 395

This step of the methodology allows us to reduce the set of instances while maintaining 396

the accuracy of the predictions made by the model. This process is particularly important 397

when we want to use the model in local mode and we are going to work with a machine 398

learning technique of the "Lazy learning" category [27] where the model is made up of the 399

data itself. 400

Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 12 of 16

4.5. Instance Selection Process

This step of the methodology allows us to reduce the set of instances while maintaining
the accuracy of the predictions made by the model. This process is particularly important
when we want to use the model in local mode and we are going to work with a Machine
Learning technique of the “Lazy learning” category [35] where the model is made up of the
data itself.
To perform instance selection on the datasets of Table 3, it is necessary to use a
technique that allows dealing with fuzzy and missing values. In this study case, we will
use the CNN technique, as we commented in Section 3.3.1, to deal with imprecise values.
Since the technique needs a class attribute, we add (only for the instance selection process)
to each instance a class value from the set {F,NF} where the instance is labelled with the
value NF if Tmin > 0 or with the value F in otherwise. This technique ranks the instances
in increasing order of their imprecision so that the more imprecise instances are, a lower
probability of belonging to the final reduced set will have.
The best model in terms of size and accuracy has been included in the Decision Support
System. The model has been set with the parameter k = 1 and obtains to each dataset
size of 1962, 1488, 1819, 999, and 664 instances (with a percentage of reduction of 87.08%,
87.45%, 80.00%, 88.20%, 92.00%), respectively.

4.6. Machine Learning Model

To design the Decision Support System, a Machine Learning technique is needed to
predict the temperature one hour in advance. This technique must be able to work with
imprecise data. In this study we use the kNNimp technique [30]. As a result of the previous
analysis, the kNNimp will work with the instances included in the condensed datasets with
k = 1 for each station.

4.7. Decision Support System

In this study case, and after consulting the farmer about the number of rules, the thresh-
old values, and the actions to be displayed, the designed set of rules is as follows:

If 2 < Tmin ≤ 5, then send “Alert—Very low temperature forecast” to farmer

If Tmin ≤ 2 then send “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” to farmer

where Tmin is the forecast of the temperature value for the next hour. Therefore, the farmer
will receive an alert/alarm that will allow him/her to take the necessary measures to
protect his/her crops one hour in advance.

4.8. Evaluating the Decision Support System by Expert Farmers

When the system is in service, it collects the values of the attributes (RH f , R f , AR,
WS f , WD, RF, VPD, DE, T f ) in the current hour h and the previous one h − 1 and obtains
a prediction of T for hour h + 1. For example, at hour 21:00, the collected information is
([71.62, 73.55, 74.85, 75.91], 0.0, 0.0, [0, 0.37, 0.73, 1.27], 347.5, 0.0, 0.24, 1.39, [4.98, 5.45, 5.78,
6.27]) and at hour 22:00 is ([74.58, 77.32, 79.15, 80.80], 0.0, 0.0, [0, 0.23, 0.99, 2.16], 338.3, 0.0,
0.18, 0.72, [3.28, 3.92, 4.41, 5.15]).
Table 4 shows the predictions made by the Decision Support System in three different
time scenarios. The table shows the time at which the prediction is made and the time for
which the temperature value is predicted.
Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 13 of 16

Table 4. Temperature prediction for the next hour (h + 1) from the current information (h) and the
previous one (h − 1). The information for the time h and h − 1 corresponds to the vector (RH f , R f ,
AR, WS f , WD, RF, VPD, DE, T f ). The time at which the prediction is made, the predicted temperature
one hour in advance, and the real values that occurred, are indicated.

Prediction Made. . . Real

At For Expected Temperature System Message Hour Real Temperature
21:00 22:00 4.200 “Alert—Very low temperature forecast” 22:00 3.281
22:00 23:00 2.602 “Alert—Very low temperature forecast” 23:00 2.881
23:00 24:00 2.359 “Alert—Very low temperature forecast” 00:00 1.525
24:00 01:00 1.135 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 01:00 1.253
01:00 02:00 0.726 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 02:00 0.776
Period 1

02:00 03:00 0.084 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 03:00 −0.075

03:00 04:00 −0.426 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 04:00 −0.483
04:00 05:00 −0.902 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 05:00 −0.886
05:00 06:00 −1.327 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 06:00 −1.461
06:00 07:00 −1.691 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 07:00 −1.594
07:00 08:00 −1.957 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 08:00 −1.662
08:00 09:00 −1.751 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 09:00 −1.457
09:00 10:00 2.610 “Alert—Very low temperature forecast” 10:00 2.716
22:00 23:00 5.730 “Non-Alert” 23:00 5.322
23:00 24:00 4.510 “Alert—Very low temperature forecast” 24:00 3.965
24:00 01:00 3.418 “Alert—Very low temperature forecast” 01:00 3.396
01:00 02:00 2.657 “Alert—Very low temperature forecast” 02:00 2.818
Period 2

02:00 03:00 1.821 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 03:00 1.627

03:00 04:00 0.875 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 04:00 1.525
04:00 05:00 0.534 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 05:00 0.572
05:00 06:00 −0.072 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 06:00 0.061
06:00 07:00 −0.268 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 07:00 −0.206
07:00 08:00 −0.269 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 08:00 0.444
08:00 09:00 3.656 “Alert—Very low temperature forecast” 09:00 3.839
01:00 02:00 3.926 “Alert—Very low temperature forecast” 02:00 4.033
02:00 03:00 2.868 “Alert—Very low temperature forecast” 03:00 2.478
03:00 04:00 2.170 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 04:00 1.865
Period 3

04:00 05:00 1.335 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 05:00 1.184

05:00 06:00 0.743 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 06:00 1.116
06:00 07:00 0.654 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 07:00 0.742
07:00 08:00 1.069 “Alarm—Frost forecast soon” 08:00 1.457
08:00 09:00 4.856 “Alert—Very low temperature forecast” 09:00 5.167

The three scenarios in Table 4 have been validated by two farmers from “Sociedad
Cooperativa Alimer Alimentos del Mediterráneo” (https://alimer.es/ accessed on 30
January 2023) in the Region of Murcia. The farmers have paraffin burners on their plot as
an anti-frost system. On the one hand, if the farmers would not have the prediction system,
and according to the current temperature values in period 1 (Table 4), the farmers indicate
that at 23:00, they would have been alert about the activation of the anti-frost system
(devices, staff, etc.). At 24:00, they would have activated the system and kept it until 10:00,
when they would have deactivated it. On the other hand, with the information provided
by the system on the temperature prediction one hour in advance (Table 4), the farmers
indicate that at 22:00 and also knowing the prediction for 23:00, they would be on alert,
at 23:00 with the prediction for 24:00, they would remain on alert, and so on until 01:00.
At that time they know that at 02:00 the temperature will be below 1◦ positive and therefore,
at 01:00 they would start preparing their anti-frost system to activate it at 2:00. At 09:00
they know that the forecast for 10:00 will be over 2◦ positive and therefore, from 09:00
they would start to deactivate their anti-frost system. Thus, with the Decision Support
System created using the proposed methodology, the farmers have saved two hours of both
economic and environmental resources.
Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 14 of 16

In period 2, and with the information shown in Table 4, farmers act similarly to period 1,
but in period 3 (Table 4) we must highlighted an interesting situation. The farmers tell us
that if they would not have the forecast, and with the current values, at 04:00, they would
have activated the anti-frost system. However, with the forecasting system, at 04:00 they
know the forecast for 05:00, and, therefore, at 05:00, they would be on alert and would make
their decision to activate the anti-frost system based on the forecast for 06:00. As at 5:00 the
forecast for 06:00 remains unchanged, and because of the night is near to end, they would
decide not to activate the system, waiting for the next hour. Thus, in the end, and with the
information available, the farmers would not activate the anti-frost system.
As we can see, with the information provided by the prediction system in these three
situations, farmers make more appropriate decisions and, therefore, can reduce the activation
time of the anti-frost system, or not activate it at all. This leads to savings both in terms
of the devices used and the staff required to activate them and reduces the environmental
impact involved.

5. Conclusions and Future Work

This paper has presented a methodology to develop Decision Support Systems that
help to make decisions in the field of agriculture. The methodology is based on time series
datasets, and after applying its different stages, an inference engine is obtained that provides
the final system with intelligence. In an encapsulated form, it allows farmers to benefit from
new technologies and to be less reluctant to use them in their work. A study case for the crop
frost problem has been shown in the paper. In that study, the proposed methodology is used,
offering a warning solution to farmers so that they can prevent crop frost. The final system
has been validated by experts from an agricultural cooperative, showing its effectiveness in
terms of economic and environmental benefits. Therefore, the objective pursued with the
methodology has been achieved.
The methodology can be extended and customised to use in other areas of today’s
world. Furthermore, it would benefit from the development and research of new Machine
Learning techniques in the Soft Computing framework or the improvement of existing ones.

Author Contributions: Conceptualisation and methodology, J.M.C., M.C.G. and R.M.-E.; software
and validation, J.M.C., M.C.G. and R.M.-E.; investigation, J.M.C., M.C.G. and R.M.-E.; resources, R.M.-
E.; writing—original draft preparation, review and editing, J.M.C., M.C.G. and R.M.-E.; supervision,
M.C.G.; funding acquisition, J.M.C. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of
the manuscript.
Funding: This work is part of the project of I+D+i PID2020-112675RB-C44, funded by MCIN/AEI/
10.13039/501100011033.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the farmers from “Alimer Alimentos del Mediterráneo Sociedad Co-
operativa” in the Region of Murcia for their collaboration in the verification of the Decision Support
System proposed in the study case.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

References
1. Khan, N.; Ray, R.L.; Sargani, G.R.; Ihtisham, M.; Khayyam, M.; Ismail, S. Current Progress and Future Prospects of Agriculture
Technology: Gateway to Sustainable Agriculture. Sustainability 2021, 13, 4883. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094883.
2. Pawlak, K.; Kołodziejczak, M. The role of agriculture in ensuring food security in developing countries: Considerations in the
context of the problem of sustainable food production. Sustainability 2020, 12, 5488. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135488.
3. Basso, B.; Antle, J. Digital agriculture to design sustainable agricultural systems. Nat. Sustain. 2020, 3, 254–256.
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-0510-0.
4. Lindblom, J.; Lundström, C.; Ljung, M.; Jonsson, A. Promoting sustainable intensification in precision agriculture: Review of
decision support systems development and strategies. Precis. Agric. 2017, 18, 309–331. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-016-9491-4.
Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 15 of 16

5. Balit, S.; Acunzo, M. A Changing World: FAO Efforts in Communication for Rural Development. In Handbook of Communication
for Development and Social Change; Servaes, J., Ed.; Springer: Singapore, 2020; pp. 133–156. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-
2014-3_29.
6. Mekala, M.; Viswanathan, P. A Survey: Smart agriculture IoT with cloud computing. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Mi-
croelectronic Devices, Circuits and Systems, Vellore, India, 10–12 August 2017; pp. 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICMDCS.2017.8211551.
7. D’Adamo, I.; Di Vaio, A.; Formiconi, A.; Soldano, A. European IoT Use in Homes: Opportunity or Threat to Households? Int. J.
Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 4343. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114343.
8. Salih, K.O.M.; Rashid, T.A.; Radovanovic, D.; Bacanin, N. A comprehensive survey on the Internet of Things with the industrial
marketplace. Sensors 2022, 22, 730. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22030730.
9. Gagliardi, G.; Lupia, M.; Cario, G.; Cicchello Gaccio, F.; D’Angelo, V.; Cosma, A.I.M.; Casavola, A. An internet of things solution
for smart agriculture. Agronomy 2021, 11, 2140. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11112140.
10. Xu, J.; Gu, B.; Tian, G. Review of agricultural IoT technology. Artif. Intell. Agric. 2022, 6, 10–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aiia.2022.01.001.
11. Schreiner, V.C.; Link, M.; Kunz, S.; Szöcs, E.; Scharmüller, A.; Vogler, B.; Beck, B.; Battes, K.P.; Cimpean, M.; Singer, H.P.; et al.
Paradise lost? Pesticide pollution in a European region with considerable amount of traditional agriculture. Water Res. 2021,
188, 116528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2020.116528.
12. Shruthi, U.; Nagaveni, V.; Raghavendra, B. A review on machine learning classification techniques for plant disease detection. In
Proceedings of the 2019 5th International Conference on Advanced Computing & Communication Systems (ICACCS), Coimbatore,
India, 15–16 March 2019; pp. 281–284. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICACCS.2019.8728415.
13. Benyezza, H.; Bouhedda, M.; Rebouh, S. Zoning irrigation smart system based on fuzzy control technology and IoT for water and
energy saving. J. Clean. Prod. 2021, 302, 127001. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127001.
14. Karetsos, S.; Costopoulou, C.; Sideridis, A. Developing a smartphone app for m-government in agriculture. J. Agric. Inform. 2014,
5, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.17700/jai.2014.5.1.129.
15. Liakos, K.G.; Busato, P.; Moshou, D.; Pearson, S.; Bochtis, D. Machine learning in agriculture: A review. Sensors 2018, 18, 2674.
https://doi.org/10.3390/s18082674.
16. FreshPlaza. Frosts in Murcia Will Reduce the Supply of Vegetables in the Coming Weeks. 2021. Available online: https://www.
freshplaza.com/article/9281419/ (accessed on 30 January 2023).
17. Ding, L.; Noborio, K.; Shibuya, K.; Tamura, Y. Frost forecast—A practice of machine learning from data. Int. J. Reason.-Based Intell.
Syst. 2021, 13, 191–203. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJRIS.2021.10038162.
18. Guillén-Navarro, M.; Martínez-España, R.; Llanes, A.; Bueno-Crespo, A.; Cecilia-Canales, J. A Deep Learning Model to Predict
Lower Temperatures in Agriculture. J. Ambient Intell. Smart Environ. 2020, 12, 21–34. https://doi.org/10.3233/AIS-200546.
19. Aswin, S.; Geetha, P.; Vinayakumar, R. Deep Learning Models for the Prediction of Rainfall. In Proceedings of the Inter-
national Conference on Communication and Signal Processing (ICCSP), Tamilnadu, India, 3–5 April 2018; pp. 0657–0661.
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCSP.2018.8523829.
20. Abdel-Fattah, M.; Mokhtar, A.; Abdo, A. Application of neural network and time series modeling to study the suitability of drain
water quality for irrigation: A case study from Egypt. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2021, 28, 898–914. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-
020-10543-3.
21. Mehdizadeh, S.; Behmanesh, J.; Khalili, K. Using MARS, SVM, GEP and empirical equations for estimation of monthly mean
reference evapotranspiration. Comput. Electron. Agric. 2017, 139, 103–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2017.05.002.
22. Pantazi, X.E.; Moshou, D.; Alexandridis, T.; Whetton, R.L.; Mouazen, A.M. Wheat yield prediction using machine learning and
advanced sensing techniques. Comput. Electron. Agric. 2016, 121, 57–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2015.11.018.
23. Ferentinos, K. Deep learning models for plant disease detection and diagnosis. Comput. Electron. Agric. 2018, 145, 311–318.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2018.01.009.
24. Pantazi, X.E.; Moshou, D.; Oberti, R.; West, J.; Mouazen, A.M.; Bochtis, D. Detection of biotic and abiotic stresses in crops by
using hierarchical self organizing classifiers. Precis. Agric. 2017, 18, 383–393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11119-017-9507-8.
25. Coopersmith, E.J.; Minsker, B.S.; Wenzel, C.E.; Gilmore, B.J. Machine learning assessments of soil drying for agricultural planning.
Comput. Electron. Agric. 2014, 104, 93–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2014.04.004.
26. Nahvi, B.; Habibi, J.; Mohammadi, K.; Shamshirband, S.; Al Razgan, O.S. Using self-adaptive evolutionary algorithm to improve
the performance of an extreme learning machine for estimating soil temperature. Comput. Electron. Agric. 2016, 124, 150–160.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compag.2016.03.025.
27. Buza, K. Time Series Classification and its Applications. In Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Web Intelligence,
Mining and Semantics, Novi Sad, Serbia, 25–27 June 2018; Association for Computing Machinery: New York, NY, USA, 2018;
pp. 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1145/3227609.3227690.
28. Esling, P.; Agon, C. Time-series data mining. ACM Comput. Surv. 2012, 45, 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1145/2379776.2379788.
29. Pratama, I.; Permanasari, A.; Ardiyanto, I.; Indrayani, R. A review of missing values handling methods on time-series data. In
Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Technology Systems and Innovation (ICITSI), Bandung, Indonesia,
24–27 October 2016; pp. 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICITSI.2016.7858189.
30. Cadenas, J.M.; Garrido, M.C.; Martínez, R.; Muñoz, E.; Bonissone, P.P. A fuzzy k-nearest neighbor classifier to deal with imperfect
data. Soft Comput. 2018, 22, 3313–3330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00500-017-2567-x.
Sensors 2023, 23, 3038 16 of 16

31. Olvera-López, J.A.; Carrasco-Ochoa, J.A.; Martínez-Trinidad, J.F.; Kittler, J. A review of instance selection methods. Artif. Intell.
Rev. 2000, 34, 133–143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-010-9165-y.
32. Bonissone, P.; Cadenas, J.M.; Garrido, M.C.; Díaz-Valladares, R.A. A fuzzy random forest. Int. J. Approx. Reason. 2010, 51, 729–747.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijar.2010.02.003.
33. Snyder, R.; Melo-Abreu, J.; Matulich, S. Frost Protection: Fundamentals, Practice and Economics; FAO: Rome, Italy, 2005.
34. IMIDA. Murcia Agricultural Information System, Meteorological data for the Region of Murcia. Available online: http://siam.
imida.es/ (accessed on 30 January 2023).
35. Aha, D. Lazy Learning; Springer Science and Business Media: Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-
017-2053-3.

Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual
author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to
people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.