General description and operation of the agro-environmental system: Crop management modeling

Input for a data management system to provide farmers with information to improve crop management practices in Virginia requires monitoring of control crops at field stations, crop surveys derived from remotely sensed aircraft data, meteorological data from synchronous satellites, and details of local agricultural conditions. Presently models are under development for determining pest problems, water balance in the soil, stages of plant maturity, and optimum planting date. The status of the Cerospora leafspot model for peanut crop management is considered. Other models under development planned relate to Cylindtocladium Blackrot and Sclerotinia blight of peanuts, cyst nematode (Globerdena solanacearum) of tobacco, and red crown rot of soybeans. A software for program for estimating precipitation and solar radiation on a statewise basis is also being developed

Impact of remote sensing upon the planning, management, and development of water resources

A survey of the principal water resource users was conducted to determine the impact of new remote data streams on hydrologic computer models. The analysis of the responses and direct contact demonstrated that: (1) the majority of water resource effort of the type suitable to remote sensing inputs is conducted by major federal water resources agencies or through federally stimulated research, (2) the federal government develops most of the hydrologic models used in this effort; and (3) federal computer power is extensive. The computers, computer power, and hydrologic models in current use were determined

DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING: HAS ITS DAY ARRIVED?

Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Assessment of Sustainable Development

The objective of this paper is to introduce fuzzy set theory and develop fuzzy mathematical models to assess sustainable development based on context-dependent economic, ecological, and societal sustainability indicators. Membership functions are at the core of fuzzy models, and define the degree to which indicators contribute to development. Although a decision-making process regarding sustainable development is subjective, fuzzy set theory links human expectations about development, expressed in linguistic propositions, to numerical data, expressed in measurements of sustainability indicators. In the future, practical implementation of such models will be based on elicitation of expert knowledge to construct a membership function. The fuzzy models developed in this paper provide a novel approach to support decisions regarding sustainable development.agriculture;assessment;fuzzy set theory;sustainable development

Publications in Agricultural Economics Kansas State University 1991

Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Controlled Ecological Life Support System: Research and Development Guidelines

Results of a workshop designed to provide a base for initiating a program of research and development of controlled ecological life support systems (CELSS) are summarized. Included are an evaluation of a ground based manned demonstration as a milestone in CELSS development, and a discussion of development requirements for a successful ground based CELSS demonstration. Research recommendations are presented concerning the following topics: nutrition and food processing, food production, waste processing, systems engineering and modelling, and ecology-systems safety

A mathematical model for the study of the impact of small commercial fishing on the biodiversity of artificial reefs

Artificial reefs are an essential tool for restoring and maintaining biodiversity in degraded marine areas. They make it possible to prevent trawling and, at the same time, create an environment suitable for restocking of several species of fishes. These submerged structures are compatible with small commercial fishing that could have a negative impact on the biodiversity in the artificial reef environment. Fishing policies should be considered in order to make fishing activities sustainable. We propose a mathematical model of artificial reefs environments. The model can be used to study the impact of small commercial fishing on the biodiversity of an artificial reef and to predict the effects of different fishing policies. The model is developed on the basis of observations made in two protected marine areas located in central Italy where artificial reefs have been realized

Process description of SWQN : A simplified hydraulic model

SWQN is a simplified hydraulic model for surface water systems which computes water levels and flows in a network of nodes labelled as ‘volumes’ and segments labelled as ‘connectors’. The user can specify a variety of connectors like open water courses or structures such as weirs, gates, culverts or pumps. Water levels are calculated in the ‘volumes’ driving the one dimensional flows through the ‘connectors’ linking up the ‘volumes’. The assumption is that the flow between two nodes with an open connection in between is linearly dependent on the difference in water level, if necessary augmented with the difference in velocity head, the wetted profile, and a given resistance

Achilles And The Tortoise: Some Caveats To Mathematical Modeling In Biology

Mathematical modeling has recently become a much-lauded enterprise, and many funding agencies seek to prioritize this endeavor. However, there are certain dangers associated with mathematical modeling, and knowledge of these pitfalls should also be part of a biologist\u27s training in this set of techniques. (1) Mathematical models are limited by known science; (2) Mathematical models can tell what can happen, but not what did happen; (3) A model does not have to conform to reality, even if it is logically consistent; (4) Models abstract from reality, and sometimes what they eliminate is critically important; (5) Mathematics can present a Platonic ideal to which biologically organized matter strives, rather than a trial-and-error bumbling through evolutionary processes. This “Unity of Science” approach, which sees biology as the lowest physical science and mathematics as the highest science, is part of a Western belief system, often called the Great Chain of Being (or Scala Natura), that sees knowledge emerge as one passes from biology to chemistry to physics to mathematics, in an ascending progression of reason being purification from matter. This is also an informal model for the emergence of new life. There are now other informal models for integrating development and evolution, but each has its limitations