Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
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When is the optimal date for certain crop protection measures in a
specific location?
The mission of the ZEPP is to develop, collect and examine existing fore-
casting and simulation models for important agricultural and horticultural
pests and diseases and to adapt these models for practical use.
GIS is an integral part of these models. In the following two examples for
how GIS is used in DSS shall be shown.
1.
C
REATING
M
ACHINE
R
EADABLE
A
PPLICATION
M
APS FOR
C
ROP
P
ROTECTION
Expectations towards the use of pesticides in Germany are high. This is
necessary to sustain public acceptance of modern agriculture. Farmers need an
efficient data management because complying with rules and requirements
regarding planning, application and documentation of pesticide measures
causes a high level of information density.
To prevent deposition of pesticides into water bodies as well as other
damage to the environment several laws about legal buffer zones to rivers, etc.
apply. The instructions coming with each pesticide explain the product
specific buffer zones. Certain pesticides require e.g. to keep a distance of 20
meters to water bodies if the field slopes more than 2%. Besides that, legal
buffer zones depend as well on the application technique. The drift reduction
class of spray nozzles is the important point here. Additional there are specific
laws in each German state that oblige buffer zones to water bodies and if a
district does not have an adequate amount of small landscape features (e.g.
hedges) buffer zones to such structures apply, too.
Because of these factors and the necessary documentation proper crop
protection is challenging for farmers who want to achieve an optimal and
correct implementation. Considering changing agricultural machines, drivers
and work regions for agricultural service supply agencies these challenges are
even bigger (Scheiber and Kleinhenz 2013b). In agricultural day-to-day reality
the planning and implementation of crop protection measures as well as the
compliance with laws, rules and any sort of documentation are mostly due to
the responsibility of the operator who is conducting the action. Much of this
work is still done manually and without the support of information technology
which results in high workloads as well as an increased error-proneness.
