Dr Amal Chakhar

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

School of Earth and Environment · University of Leeds

Using remote sensing and machine learning to build resilient, sustainable agricultural systems.

10 Peer-reviewed publications
335 Citations
7 h-index
3 Countries of fieldwork

About

I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, and a member of the Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science.

My research focuses on developing Earth observation methodologies for sustainable agriculture, combining satellite remote sensing with machine learning to address challenges in crop classification, soil moisture retrieval, irrigation detection, and drought monitoring.

I currently contribute to the iSPARK project, developing Earth observation approaches for crop classification and drought and irrigation monitoring to support sustainable agriculture in Kenya.

Research

Remote Sensing Precision Agriculture Crop Classification Machine Learning Soil Moisture Retrieval Irrigation Detection Evapotranspiration Drought Monitoring

Crop classification

Fusing Sentinel-1 SAR, Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 time series with machine learning to map what is growing, where — from semi-arid Spain to smallholder Kenya.

~90% F1 across 12 crop types and 2,000+ field plots · Remote Sensing, 2020

Irrigation detection

Distinguishing irrigated from rainfed fields using satellite time series — evidence that matters for water accounting in water-limited regions.

88.4% accuracy on fruit-tree orchards · Remote Sensing, 2024

Soil moisture retrieval

Inverting radar scattering models with neural networks, using UAV photogrammetry to measure the surface roughness term in situ.

R² up to 0.78 over agricultural fields · Remote Sensing, 2021

Evapotranspiration & drought

From flux-tower eddy covariance measurements in Tunisia to satellite-scale drought-stress monitoring of maize systems in western Kenya.

Field-validated ET in hilly watersheds · Atmosphere, 2018

iSPARK

University of Leeds · Current

Innovation in Sustainability, Policy, Adaptation and Resilience in Kenya — developing Earth observation methodologies for crop classification and drought and irrigation monitoring to safeguard food security in western Kenya. Presented at the 3rd International Crop Modelling Symposium (iCROPM2026), Florence.

Experience

Publications

Education

Contact

Email

chakhar.amal@gmail.com

University Profile

University of Leeds

ORCID

0000-0002-4294-1015

"510 million km² of Earth under constant satellite observation — and the most remarkable thing ever detected is still you."