RCTUnet: a deep learning model for crop-residue-soil image segmentation and crop residue cover extraction

Ting LI; Yang LIU; Haikuan FENG; Meiyan SHU; Hao YANG; Yuanyuan FU; Xin XU; Yinghao LIN; Hongbo QIAO; Wei GUO; Xinming MA; Lei SHI; Jibo YUE

doi:10.1631/jzus.B2500451

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RCTUnet: a deep learning model for crop-residue-soil image segmentation and crop residue cover extraction

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Research Article | Updated：2026-05-15

RCTUnet: a deep learning model for crop-residue-soil image segmentation and crop residue cover extraction
RCTUnet: a deep learning model for crop-residue-soil image segmentation and crop residue cover extraction
RCTUnet：一种用于作物-残茬-土壤图像分割与秸秆覆盖度提取的深度学习模型
Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B Vol. 27, Issue 5, Pages: 517-536(2026)
Affiliations：

1.College of Information and Management Science, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, China
2.Institute of Quantitative Remote Sensing and Smart Agriculture, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, China
3.Key Laboratory of Quantitative Remote Sensing in Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Information Technology Research Center, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Beijing 100097, China
4.Shenzhen Research Institute of Henan University, Shenzhen 450046, China
5.Henan Key Laboratory of Big Data Analysis and Processing, School of Computer and Information Engineering, Henan University, Kaifeng 475001, China
Funds：
DOI：10.1631/jzus.B2500451
CLC：
CSTR：
Received：29 July 2025，

Revised：2025-11-25，

Published：15 May 2026
Accepted：

李婷,刘杨,冯海宽等.RCTUnet：一种用于作物-残茬-土壤图像分割与秸秆覆盖度提取的深度学习模型[J].浙江大学学报（英文版）（B辑：生物医学和生物技术）,2026,27(05):517-536.

Ting LI, Yang LIU, Haikuan FENG, et al. RCTUnet: a deep learning model for crop-residue-soil image segmentation and crop residue cover extraction[J]. Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B, 2026, 27(5): 517-536.
李婷,刘杨,冯海宽等.RCTUnet：一种用于作物-残茬-土壤图像分割与秸秆覆盖度提取的深度学习模型[J].浙江大学学报（英文版）（B辑：生物医学和生物技术）,2026,27(05):517-536. DOI： 10.1631/jzus.B2500451.

Ting LI, Yang LIU, Haikuan FENG, et al. RCTUnet: a deep learning model for crop-residue-soil image segmentation and crop residue cover extraction[J]. Journal of Zhejiang University-SCIENCE B, 2026, 27(5): 517-536. DOI： 10.1631/jzus.B2500451.

摘要

作物残茬覆盖度（crop residue cover

CRC）的准确量化对监测与评价保护性耕作至关重要，但面临图像分割难题。破碎残茬与土壤间细微的视觉差异，叠加田间图像中光照和阴影的变化干扰，常导致分割效果不佳。为突破上述局限，本研究提出了RCTUnet——一种专为作物-残茬-土壤稳健分割与精准CRC估算设计的新型深度学习架构。RCTUnet架构深度融合了三个关键模块：（1）ResNet50骨干网络用于深度多尺度特征提取；（2）卷积注意力模块（CBAM）实现通道和空间维度的显著残茬特征自适应聚焦；（3）基于transformer的全局上下文融合模块建模长距离空间依赖性，这对理解异质残茬分布模式至关重要。本研究在1220幅包含四种典型轮作模式的田间图像数据集上评估了RCTUnet模型。实验结果表明，相较传统模型（包括Unet、Unet++、DeepLabV3、SegNet和FCN）：（1）RCTUnet的作物-残茬-土壤分割精度优越性显著，整体准度分别提升3.24%、3.42%、4.88%、8.28%和6.05%；（2）RCTUnet在残茬-土壤分割性能上表现更优，残茬召回率分别提高7.67%、7.37%、14.09%、27.05%和16.91%；（3）RCTUnet显示出最强的CRC估算能力，均方根误差（RMSE）为4.875，较Unet（RMSE=8.941）提高了45.5%。这些结果验证了本研究提出的融合深度层次特征、双域注意力和全局上下文建模的混合架构的有效性。RCTUnet为自动化CRC评估提供了一种稳健可靠的工具，有助于提升田间农业监测能力。

Abstract

Accurate quantification of crop residue cover (CRC) is crucial for monitoring and evaluating conservation tillage practices

yet it poses a significant image segmentation challenge. The subtle visual distinctions between fragmented residue and soil

compounded by variable illumination and shadows in field imagery

often lead to poor segmentation performance. To overcome these limitations

we introduce RCTUnet

a novel deep learning architecture designed for robust crop-residue-soil segmentation and precise CRC estimation. RCTUnet’s architecture synergistically integrates three key components: (1) a ResNet50 backbone for deep

multi-scale feature extraction; (2) a convolutional block attention module (CBAM) to adaptively focus on salient residue features across both channel and spatial dimensions; and (3) a transformer-based global context fusion module (GCFM) to model long-range spatial dependencies

which is critical for interpreting heterogeneous residue patterns. We evaluated RCTUnet on a dataset of 1220 field-acquired images spanning four typical crop rotations. Experimental results show that

compared to traditional models: (1) RCTUnet achieves significantly higher crop-residue-soil segmentation accuracy than classic models including Unet

Unet++

DeepLabV3

segmentation network (SegNet)

and fully convolutional network (FCN)

with improvements of 3.24%

3.42%

4.88%

8.28%

and 6.05% in overall accuracy

respectively; (2) RCTUnet yields superior residue-soil segmentation performance

with increases in residue recall of 7.67%

7.37%

14.09%

27.05%

and 16.91%

respectively; (3) RCTUnet shows enhanced CRC estimation accuracy

achieving a root mean square error (RMSE) of 4.875

representing a 45.5% improvement over Unet (RMSE=8.941). These results demonstrate the efficacy of our hybrid approach

which combines deep hierarchical features

dual-domain attention

and global context modeling. RCTUnet provides a robust and reliable tool for automated CRC assessment

advancing the capabilities of in-field agricultural monitoring.

关键词

Keywords

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