Assessing the Effectiveness of Variable-Rate Drip Irrigation on Water Use Efficiency in a Vineyard in Northern Italy

Although many studies in the literature illustrate the numerous devices and methodologies nowadays existing for assessing the spatial variability within agricultural fields, and indicate the potential for variable-rate irrigation (VRI) in vineyards, only very few works deal with the implementation of VRI systems to manage such heterogeneity, and these studies are usually conducted in experimental fields for research aims. In this study, a VR drip irrigation system was designed for a 1-ha productive vineyard in Northern Italy and managed during the agricultural season 2018, to demonstrate feasibility and effectiveness of a water supply differentiated according to the spatial variability detected in field. Electrical resistivity maps obtained by means of an electro-magnetic induction sensor were used to detect four homogeneous zones with similar soil properties. In each zone, a soil profile was opened, and soil samples were taken and analyzed in laboratory. Two irrigation management zones (MZs) were identified by grouping homogeneous zones on the basis of their hydrological properties, and an irrigation prescription map was built consistently with the total available water (TAW) content in the root zone of the two MZs. The designed drip irrigation system consisted of three independent sectors: the first two supplied water to the two MZs, while the third sector (reference sector) was managed following the farmer\u2019s habits. During the season, irrigation in the first two sectors was fine-tuned using information provided by soil moisture probes installed in each sector. Results showed a reduction of water use by 18% compared to the \u2018reference\u2019 sector without losses in yield and product quality, and a grape\u2019s maturation more homogeneous in time

Assessing the Feasibility of Using Sentinel-2 Imagery to Quantify the Impact of Heatwaves on Irrigated Vineyards

Heatwaves are common in many viticultural regions of Australia. We evaluated the potential of satellite-based remote sensing to detect the effects of high temperatures on grapevines in a South Australian vineyard over the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons. The study involved: (i) comparing the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from medium- and high-resolution satellite images; (ii) determining correlations between environmental conditions and vegetation indices (Vis); and (iii) identifying VIs that best indicate heatwave effects. Pearson's correlation and Bland-Altman testing showed a significant agreement between the NDVI of high- and medium-resolution imagery (R = 0.74, estimated difference ??0.093). The band and the VI most sensitive to changes in environmental conditions were 705 nm and enhanced vegetation index (EVI), both of which correlated with relative humidity (R = 0.65 and R = 0.62, respectively). Conversely, SWIR (short wave infrared, 1610 nm) exhibited a negative correlation with growing degree days (R = -0.64). The analysis of heat stress showed that green and red edge bands-the chlorophyll absorption ratio index (CARI) and transformed chlorophyll absorption ratio index (TCARI)-were negatively correlated with thermal environmental parameters such as air and soil temperature and growing degree days (GDDs). The red and red edge bands-the soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI) and CARI2-were correlated with relative humidity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating the effectiveness of using medium-resolution imagery for the detection of heat stress on grapevines in irrigated vineyards.</p

Technology Development and Consumer Acceptance of Innovation in Fruit Production

Precision Agriculture (PA) and the more specific branch of Precision Horticulture are two very promising sectors. They focus on the use of technologies in agriculture to optimize the use of inputs, so to reach a better efficiency, and minimize waste of resources. This important objective motivated many researchers and companies to search new technology solutions. Sometimes the effort proved to be a good seed, but sometimes an unfeasible idea. So that PA, from its birth more or less 25 years ago, is still a “new” management, interesting for the future, but an actual low adoption rate is still reported by experts and researchers. This work aims to give a contribution in finding the causes of this low adoption rate and proposing a methodological solution to this problem. The first step was to examine prior research about Precision Agriculture adoption, by ex ante and ex post approach. It was supposed as important to find connections between these two phases of a purchase experience. In fact, the ex ante studies dealt with potential consumer’s perceptions before a usage experience occurred, therefore before purchasing a technology, while the ex post studies described the drivers which made a farmer become an end-user of PA technology. Then, an example of consumer research is presented. This was an ex ante research focused on pre-prototype technology for fruit production. This kind of research could give precious information about consumer acceptance before reaching an advanced development phase of the technology, and so to have the possibility to change something with the least financial impact. The final step was to develop the pre-prototype technology that was the subject of the consumer acceptance research and test its technical characteristics

Precision Agriculture Technology for Crop Farming

This book provides a review of precision agriculture technology development, followed by a presentation of the state-of-the-art and future requirements of precision agriculture technology. It presents different styles of precision agriculture technologies suitable for large scale mechanized farming; highly automated community-based mechanized production; and fully mechanized farming practices commonly seen in emerging economic regions. The book emphasizes the introduction of core technical features of sensing, data processing and interpretation technologies, crop modeling and production control theory, intelligent machinery and field robots for precision agriculture production

Precision Agriculture Technology for Crop Farming

This book provides a review of precision agriculture technology development, followed by a presentation of the state-of-the-art and future requirements of precision agriculture technology. It presents different styles of precision agriculture technologies suitable for large scale mechanized farming; highly automated community-based mechanized production; and fully mechanized farming practices commonly seen in emerging economic regions. The book emphasizes the introduction of core technical features of sensing, data processing and interpretation technologies, crop modeling and production control theory, intelligent machinery and field robots for precision agriculture production

The application of mobile web and devices for environmental surveillance on construction sites in Malaysia

Environmental surveillance on construction sites requires environmental information that is concise, to-the-point, timely and usable. However, physical surveillance andtraditional environmental monitoring (measurement) are challenging, time consuming, labour-intensive and can involve deficiencies and discrepancies. Technology basedsurveillance provides an alternative, but with this kind of surveillance it is often difficult to demonstrate a connection between any pollution detected and a specificsource in some circumstances. Thus, physical environmental surveillance (observation/walk-through inspection) still remains important but some improvementscan be made to it by adopting technology based surveillance. This situation creates an opportunity for deploying an information system which capitalizes on the advantages of the Internet of Things, so that decision makers can obtain an accurate and up-to-date view of their environmental management issues and status.The aim of this research was, therefore, to set out to investigate the potential for a mobile environmental information system as a part of the Internet of Thingstechnologies for environmental surveillance on Malaysian construction sites. Design Science Research (DSR) has been chosen as the philosophical approach and case studyas the research method were adopted for this research in order to achieve its objectives. A literature review on construction environmental management and mobile environmental information management was undertaken, followed by engagement with environmental experts in order to obtain detailed information requirements and toidentify user needs. These details were analysed and brought about the formulation of the system design goals, along with a conceptual model, which concluded in thedevelopment of the functional specification, the system architecture and the prototype development. The prototype system was demonstrated and evaluated interactively byconstruction environmental management teams, both in the UK and Malaysia.The main achievement of the research comprises the analysis of the needs required in a mobile environmental information system, the development of functional specifications and the demonstration and acceptance of the concept by practising construction environmental management teams. The research concludes that the concept of a mobile environmental information system is feasible, realising that it has greatly improving the task performing process as well as enhancing the flow of communication and reporting environmental surveillance activities on construction sites in nearly real time

Ciência de dados na era da agricultura digital: anais.

Estes anais contêm o texto completo dos trabalhos apresentados no XI Congresso Brasileiro de Agroinformática (SBIAgro 2017), o qual foi promovido pela Embrapa Informática Agropecuária e pela Faculdade de Engenharia Agrícola, Instituto de Computação e pelo Centro de Pesquisas Meteorológicas e Climáticas Aplicadas à Agricultura da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp). Esta edição do evento foi realizada no Centro de Convenções e na Casa do Lago da Unicamp, localizados na cidade de Campinas (SP). O propósito do evento foi o de reunir pesquisadores, professores, estudantes, empresários e funcionários de empresas para discutir o tema da informática aplicada à agricultura, além de promover um ambiente propício para o surgimento de novos relacionamentos, projetos e negócios.Organizadores: Jayme Garcia Arnal Barbedo, Maria Fernanda Moura, Luciana Alvim Santos Romani, Thiago Teixeira Santos, Débora Pignatari Drucker. SBIAgro 2017