Assessing the Perspectives of Ground Penetrating Radar for Precision Farming

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlighted the importance of adopting sustainable agricultural practices to mitigate the threat posed by climate change to food systems around the world, to provide wise water management and to restore degraded lands. At the same time, it suggested the benefits and advantages brought by the use of near-surface geophysical measurements to assist precision farming, in particular providing information on soil variability at both vertical and horizontal scales. Among such survey methodologies, Ground Penetrating Radar has demonstrated its effectiveness in soil characterisation as a consequence of its sensitivity to variations in soil electrical properties and of its additional capability of investigating subsurface stratification. The aim of this contribution is to provide a comprehensive review of the current use of the GPR technique within the domain of precision irrigation, and specifically of its capacity to provide detailed information on the within-field spatial variability of the textural, structural and hydrological soil properties, which are needed to optimize irrigation management, adopting a variable-rate approach to preserve water resources while maintaining or improving crop yields and their quality. For each soil property, the review analyses the commonly adopted operational and data processing approaches, highlighting advantages and limitations

The application of remote sensing to resource management and environmental quality programs in Kansas

The activities of the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing (KARS) Program during the period April 1, 1982 through Marsh 31, 1983 are described. The most important work revolved around the Kansas Interagency Task Force on Applied Remote Sensing and its efforts to establish an operational service oriented remote sensing program in Kansas state government. Concomitant with this work was the upgrading of KARS capabilities to process data for state agencies through the vehicle of a low cost digital data processing system. The KARS Program continued to take an active role in irrigation mapping. KARS is now integrating data acquired through analysis of LANDSAT into geographic information systems designed for evaluating groundwater resources. KARS also continues to work at the national level on the national inventory of state natural resources information systems

Multi-purposeful Application of Geospatial Data

Agriculture is the backbone of the Indian economy. Any changes in weather and climate in short term as well as long- term adversely affect the agricultural productivity and the production of food grain production. In order to minimise the adverse impact of weather and climate on crops, the use of agrometeorological information and agromet services has already been proved to be highly beneficial. Agrometeorological services rendered by India Meteorological Department (IMD), Ministry of Earth Sciences, are a step to contribute to weather information-based crop/livestock management strategies and operations dedicated to enhance crop production and food security. IMD is operating a project ‘Gramin Krishi Mausam Sewa’ (GKMS) with an objective to serve the farming community at different parts of the country. Different states of technologies including the application of geospatial technology are being used in India for further refinement of the Agromet Advisory Services. The application of geospatial technology in generating agrometeorological information and products is very necessary for preparing need-based advisories at a high-resolution scale for the farmers in the country. In this chapter, elaborate discussion has been made on how the Geographical Information System (GIS) is being used for generating information and products using ground observations as well as satellite observations

Estimation of soil moisture using multispectral and FTIR techniques

AbstractSoil moisture is a key capricious in hydrological process, the accessibility of moisture content in soil reins the mechanism amid the land surface and atmospheric progression. Precise soil moisture determination is influential in the weather forecast, drought monitoring, hydrological modeling, agriculture management and policy making. The aims of the study were to estimate soil moisture through remotely sensed data (FTIR & optical) and establishment of the results with field measured soil moisture data. The ground measurements were carried out in 0–15cm depth. Permutation of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and land surface temperature (LST) were taken to derive temperature vegetation dryness index (TVDI) for assessment of surface soil moisture. Correlation and regression analysis was conceded to narrate the TVDI with in situ calculated soil moisture. The spatial pattern of TVDI shows that generally low moisture distribution over study area. A significant (p<0.05) negative correlation of r=0.79 was found between TVDI and in situ soil moisture. The TVDI was also found adequate in temporal variation of surface soil moisture. The triangle method (TVDI) confers consistent appraisal of moisture situation and consequently can be used to evaluate the wet conditions. Furthermore, the appraisal of soil moisture using the triangular method (TVDI) was possible at medium spatial resolutions because the relationship of soil moisture with LST and NDVI lends an eloquent number of representative pixels for developing a triangular scatter plot

Trace element status of soil and organically grown herbage in relation to animal requirements

To obtain a general picture of the herbage zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), molybdenum (Mo), cobalt (Co) and selenium (Se) concentrations on organic livestock farms, we analysed soil (2001) and herbage (2001 and 2002) samples from 28 farms from four regions in Norway. We analysed animal blood plasma Cu, B12 (Co), α- and γ-tocopherol (vitamin E) and whole blood Se to investigate if the farms feeding practice met the dietary need of Cu, Co, Se and vitamin E in animals. The first cut herbage median (10th-90th percentile) Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu, Mo, Co and Se concentrations were 19 (14-34), 50 (36-88), 34 (22-86), 5.3 (3.9-6.8), 1.5 (0.6-4.8), <0.05 (<0.05-0.08) and <0.01 (<0.01-0.03) mg kg-1 DM, respectively. The herbage trace element concentration was generally higher in the second cut. The second cut herbage median (10th-90th percentile) Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu, Mo, Co and Se concentrations were 21 (16-37), 84 (52-171), 66 (36-205), 7.0 (5.7-9.3), 3.3 (1.6-10.1), 0.06 (<0.05-0.15) and 0.02 (<0.01-0.06) mg kg-1 DM, respectively. The plasma Cu and B12 (except one sheep herd) concentration were within the suggested normal range set by the Norwegian Veterinary Institute. Whole blood Se concentrations were 0.10 (0.04-0.15) µg g-1 in dairy cattle and 0.14 (0.03-0.26) µg g-1 in sheep. Vitamin E concentrations were 4.2 (2.7-8.4) mg L-1 in dairy cattle and 1.3 (0.9-2.4) mg L-1 in sheep. The results of mixed model analyses of herbage Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu and Mo indicated that soil pH, soil texture, botanical composition and phenological stage at harvest mostly influenced the herbage trace element concentrations within regions. There was a poor relationship between soil and herbage trace element concentrations, except for Zn. None of the soil and plant variables explained the variation in the herbage Se or Co concentration, but the number of samples was too low to draw clear conclusions on these two elements. There were some differences in soil and herbage trace element concentrations between regions. It was generally concluded that Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu and Mo did not limit plant growth. The herbage concentrations of Fe, Mn, Cu and Mo were sufficient to meet the dietary needs of ruminants. The herbage Zn concentration was insufficient to meet the dietary needs of dairy cattle. The herbage Co and Se concentrations and the Cu/Mo ratio were not alone balanced to meet the dietary needs of ruminants. The on-farm feeding practises fulfilled the dietary needs of Cu and Co. Selenium contents were generally insufficient on dairy farms under prevailing feeding regimes, whereas the vitamin E was insufficient on sheep farms. It is therefore highly recommended to use trace element mixtures and/or concentrates fortified with Cu, Co, Se and vitamin E on Norwegian organic livestock farms. Most open vessel digestion procedures of biological material utilize a mixture of acids that include perchloric acid. There have been many accidents associated with the use of perchloric acid where serious injury has resulted. Therefore, a microwave digestion procedure of biological material, avoiding the use of perchloric acid while maintaining accurate selenium recoveries, was developed. Biological material was digested in two steps using nitric acid followed by hydrogen peroxide. Following the addition of phosphoric acid, remaining nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide were removed by evaporation, and Se-oxides were reduced to selenite using hydrochloric acid. Samples were adjusted to a buffered pH of 1.75 and reacted with 2,3-diaminonaphthalene. The resulting piazselenol complex was extracted into cyclohexane. A normal phase HPLC method, using an amino phase column and a cyclohexane/ethyl acetate mobile phase, was used to separate the piazselenol complex from any remaining impurities before fluorescence detection on a HPLC-FLD. The relationship between peak height and selenium concentration was linear between 0 and 2 mg L-1. The mass detection limit of the complete procedure was 0.29 ng of selenium. Recoveries of Se were within the certified range for the material analysed. A pot experiment was used to investigate the relationship between ammonium-nitrate and selenate in the wheat uptake and leaching water loss of Se. Ammonium-nitrate was applied by two methods, (i) entire dose at sowing (ii) in split application as 75 % at sowing and 25 % at stem elongation. Selenate was applied at sowing, tillering, stem elongation, head emergence and at milking growth stage. Split N application increased the protein content and Se concentration in grain, but decreased the Se concentration in leaf and straw. The highest Se concentration in the plant was achieved when the soil N potentially was highest. The Se leaching losses increased with response uptake by plants, being highest at highest Se uptake by plants, but decreasing with split N application. Conclusions of the work: • Supplement of Cu, Co, Se and vitamin E are recommended to both dairy cattle and sheep and Zn to dairy cattle in organic husbandry in Norway. • It is possible to determine Se in biological material without use of perchloric acid. • Applying selenate and ammonium-nitrate together after tillering increases the wheat grain Se concentration and total Se uptake, split N application having the lowest leaching losses of Se

Earth Resources. A continuing bibliography with indexes, issue 25, April 1980

The bibliography lists 380 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system between January 1, 1980 and March 31, 1990. Emphasis is placed on the use of remote sensing and geophysical instrumentation in spacecraft and aircraft to survey and inventory natural resources and urban areas. Subject matter is grouped according to agriculture and forestry, environmental changes and cultural resources, geodesy and cartography, geology and mineral resources, hydrology and water management, data processing and distribution systems, instrumentation and sensors, and economic analysis