About Book

Agricultural mapping is day by day becoming crucial for monitoring and management of soil and irrigation of farmlands. GIS in agriculture helps farmers to achieve increased production and reduced costs by enabling better management of land resources. It is facilitating agricultural development and rural development. Accurate mapping of geographic and geologic features of farmlands is enabling scientists and farmers to create more effective and efficient farming techniques. The risk of marginalization and vulnerability of small and marginal farmers, who constitute about 85% of farmers globally, also gets reduced. Recent advances in geospatial technologies now provide land managers with tools and resources to conserve soil and water resources more efficiently than has ever been possible before. The increased efficiency, profitability and proper application of technology has made precision agriculture the hottest developing area within traditional agriculture. This book presents a comprehensive account of various topics related to the applications of geoinformatics which are highly diversified and include spatiotemporal analysis, productivity estimation, groundwater resource management, GIS tools, web GIS platform, GIS-assisted modelling and soft geo-objects. The book provides a toolkit for the acquisition, management and analysis of spatial data throughout the agriculture value chain. This book will prove to be beneficial to graduates and researchers in the fields of agricultural sciences, environmental chemistry, renewable energy and ecosystem management.

Preface............................................................................................................v

Chapter 1 3D GIS Modeling of Soft Geo-Objects: Taking Rainfall, Overland Flow, and Soil Erosion as an Example..................................................1

Abstract...................................................................................................1

1. Introduction............................................................................................2

2. Methodologies........................................................................................2

3. GIS FE-based simulation of rainfall..................................................4

4. GIS FE-based simulation of overland flow......................................6

5. GIS FE- and SV-based simulation of sediment transport and soil

erosion.....................................................................................................9

6. Results...................................................................................................12

7. Conclusions..........................................................................................15

Acknowledgements.............................................................................15

Chapter 2 Remote Sensing for Determining Evapotranspiration and Irrigation Demand for Annual Crops.....................................................................17

1. Introduction..........................................................................................17

2. Study area.............................................................................................19

3. Resources..............................................................................................20

4. Methodology........................................................................................25

5. Ground data.........................................................................................27

6. Semi-empirical modelling of satellite data (vegetation indices) to

ground data (crop canopy parameters)..........................................30

7. Algorithms application and results.................................................33

8. Use of wireless sensors for supporting evapotranspiration

measurements and smart management of irrigation demand..39

9. Smart management of evapotranspiration using 3G

telephony..............................................................................................42

10. Concluding remarks...........................................................................43

Acknowledgements.............................................................................44

Chapter 3 Rice Crop Monitoring with Unmanned Helicopter Remote Sensing

Images..........................................................................................................51

1. Introduction..........................................................................................51

2. Low altitude remote sensing (LARS) system................................53

3. Validation of LARS setup..................................................................59

4. Estimation of crop parameters.........................................................63

5. Field application of LARS systems ................................................67

6. Conclusions .........................................................................................69

Chapter 4 Integration of Groundwater Flow Modeling and GIS....................76

1. Introduction..........................................................................................76

2. Spatial analysis of waterlogged areas.............................................85

3. Conclusions........................................................................................103

4. Acknowledgments.............................................................................104

Chapter 5 Guideline for Groundwater Resource Management Using the GIS

Tools in Arid to Semi Arid Climate Regions..................................107

1. Introduction........................................................................................107

2. Study area...........................................................................................108

3. Methodology......................................................................................110

4. Results and discussions...................................................................116

5. Conclusions........................................................................................124

Chapter 6 SATEEC GIS System for Spatiotemporal Analysis of Soil Erosion

and Sediment Yield................................................................................127

1. Introduction........................................................................................127

2. Development of SATEEC GIS system...........................................128

3. Application of SATEEC GIS system..............................................137

Chapter 7 Decision Support Systems in Agriculture: Administration of

Meteorological Data, Use of Geographic Information Systems(GIS)

and Validation Methods in Crop Protection Warning Service....159

1. Introduction ......................................................................................159

2. Management of meteorological data ...........................................160

3. Use of geographic information systems in crop protection

warning service.................................................................................166

4. Model validation and evaluation in crop protection warning

service..................................................................................................171

5. Conclusions........................................................................................186

Chapter 8 GIS-Assisted Modelling of Soil Erosion in a South African

Catchment: Evaluating the USLE and SLEMSA Approach..........192

1. Introduction........................................................................................192

2. Study site and methodology...........................................................193

3. Soil loss estimates.............................................................................199

4. Discussion and conclusion..............................................................205

Acknowledgements...........................................................................207

Chapter 9 A New webGIS Platform Dedicated to Forest Extreme Events in

the Alps: Aims and Functionalities....................................................212

1. Introduction........................................................................................212

2. Materials and methods....................................................................213

3. Structure and contents of the platform........................................217

4. Conclusions........................................................................................226

Acknowledgements...........................................................................228

Chapter 10 Use of GIS to Estimate Productivity of Eucalyptus Plantations: A

Case in the Biobio Chile’s Region.....................................................230

1. Introduction........................................................................................230

2. Modeling forest system....................................................................231

3. Potential use of GIS coupled with process-based model for asses’

forest productivity............................................................................238

4. Application of 3-PG model and GIS to estimate productivity of

Eucalyptus plantations in the region of Biobío, Chile..............241

5. Conclusion..........................................................................................249

Citation......................................................................................................257

Index...........................................................................................................259

About Author

Paula Fan has served as an Associate Professor at various public research universities across Europe. She pursued her Ph.D. in Agricultural Engineering from State Science University, Irkutsk. She has authored and edited a number of academic periodicals, journal papers and books in the field of agriculture. She has also given historical review of micro irrigation. Fan holds prominent memberships of international agricultural associations and has been an active participant at international conferences and forums.