Precision Agriculture in Environmental Sustainability

Rachel Crocker

Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI)

• Is a composite index tracking 21 elements of environmental sustainability covering natural resource endowments, past and present pollution levels, environmental management efforts, contributions to protection of the global commons, and a society's capacity to improve its environmental performance over time.

Environmental Elements

• Natural resources- Trees • Pollution levels- fires• Environmental management efforts-

Precision Agriculture• A society's capacity to improve its

environmental performance over time- Brazil with Precision Agriculture.

• Deforestation

Why

• Roads

• Mining

• Cattle

• Crops

• Dams

Problems

• Climate Changes

• Soil erosion

• Avalanches

• Land slides

Where

• Temperate and tropical

• Brazilian Amazon 5 million sq.km

• Rwanda

• Tropical Africa

• Southeast Asia

• South America

How do we manage deforestation

• Harmful so need to find a solution

• Current solutions are not effective

• Solution with Precision Agriculture– Satellite imagery

• MODIS• DMC

MODIS

• Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)

• Launched by NASA in 1999 (Terra)• Launched into orbit by NASA in 2002 (Aqua) • Aboard Terra and Aqua satellites to collect data

from high resolution Landsat satellites.• Images the earth every one to two days• Lag between collection of data to availability of

data is just a few days• Information became available in February 2000

(Terra) July 2002 (Aqua)

MODIS visibility

• Bands from 400nm to 2100

• Total of 36 spectral bands http://nsidc.org/data/docs/daac/modis_v5/spectral_bands.html

• Resolution from 250m to 1000m

• Helps see the impact of human and natural activities effect on the environment

MODIS Limitations

• Can not see when clouds are present

• MODIS products come with cloud masks built in, to keep clouds from being interpreted as something else (snow).

• Visible bands can only be used during the day.

• Thermal bands are used day and night

• Very coarse image

MODIS Image

DMC International Imaging Ltd.

• Disaster Monitoring Constellation• Processed and collaborated according to

the customers needs• Used in an array of commercial and

government applications• Rapid revisit times and wide area

coverage drastically reduces the impact of cloud cover.

• Daily revisit

DMC continued

• Two satellites will be launched in October 2008 for Spain

• In 2009 another will be launched for Nigeria

• Is provided by five satellite Constellation

DMC Visibility

• Resolution at 32 meter

• Bands of NIR, Red, and Green

• Focuses on achieving a full coverage in short imaging windows to achieve homogeneity of data for analysis.

DMC Image

Future of deforestation

Director General of The Brazilian National Institute for Space Research in Brazil says:– “The DMC data is an important affordable

contribution to our assessment of the Amazon rainforest.”

– “The constellation is able to rapidly acquire and deliver high quality imagery so that we have up to date information to focus our efforts. It is our intention to develop a long term relationship with DMC”

Implementation

• The Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (INPE)

• Three years DMC

• Reduced deforestation from 27,000 sq.km. per year to about 10,000 sq.km. in 2007.

References

• http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/9116/28908/01303972.pdf• NASA Satellite Data Provides Rapid Analysis of

Amazon Deforestation Web Stie: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/09/050914105508.htm

• Writers, S. (2008). DMCii Satellite Imaging Helps Dramatically Reduce Deforestation of Amazon Basin. Web site: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/DMCii_Satellite_Imaging_Helps_Dramatically_Reduce_Deforestation_of_Amazon_Basin_999.html

• http://www.dmcii.com/applications/rp_a.htm

References

• http://www.nside.org/data/modis/faq.html• http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/

iel5/9436/29948/01370436.pdf?arnumber=1370436• Saving Lives by Preserving Forests Around the

World! Sun Ovens http://www.sunoven.com/saving%20lives.asp?OVRAW=modis%20deforestation&OVKEY=deforestation&OVMTC=advanced&OVADID=1574514021&OVKWID=14736066521

• MODIS Spectral Bands http://nsidc.org/data/docs/daac/modis_v5/spectral_bands.html