Principles and basic concepts of land evaluation: the FAO framework and its evolutions. Overview of main methodologies, data needs and tools for land evaluation: data mining and retrievement, Geographical Information Systems, remote sensing and crop modelling. Introduction to the agro-ecological zoning and FAO Global Agroecological Zoning tool (GAEZ).
FAO 2007. Land evaluation - towards a revised framework. FAO Land and water discussion papers. Available in PDF format at http://www.fao.org/3/a-a1080e.pdf
IIASA/FAO, 2012. Global Agro-ecological Zones (GAEZ v3.0). IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria and FAO, Rome, Italy. Available at http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/gaez/docs/GAEZ_Model_Documentation.pdf
https://www.qgis.org/en/docs/index.html
Semi-Automatic Classification Plugin for QGIS at https://fromgistors.blogspot.com/p/semi-automatic-classification-plugin.html
Learning Objectives
Knowledge acquired:
Fundamentals, principles, basic concepts, tools and procedures for land evaluation. Basic concepts on geographical information systems, remote sensing and crop modelling analysis for land evaluation
Competence acquired:
Acquisition of the background for performing land evaluation by using innovative tools, methods and procedures integrating information from different sources (e.g. pedological, climatic and crop suitability features).
Skills acquired (at the end of the course):
Capacity to set up and manage a land evaluation analysis.
Capacity of using crop models, GIS software and remote sensing procedures for land evaluation analysis.
Prerequisites
Courses to be used as requirements (required and/or recommended):
Courses required: No
Courses recommended: No
Teaching Methods
CFU: 6
Total hours of the course (including the time spent in attending lectures, seminars, private study, examinations, etc...): 150
Hours reserved to private study and other indivual formative activities: 102
Contact hours for: Lectures (hours): 32
Contact hours for: Laboratory (hours): 16
Further information
Frequency of lectures, practice and lab:
Not compulsory
Teaching tools:
Video, Computer room, Open source software
Type of Assessment
Exam modality:
Final written test with multiple answers: 32 questions, with three alternative choices (only one is the correct answer).
The final score will be determined simply giving one point to each correct answer and 0 point for any wrong answer and/or not given.
The exam will be passed by reaching 18 points. 30 cum laude will be given when more than 30 answers are correct.
Course program
Course Contents (detailed programme):
PRINCIPLES OF LAND EVALUATION: Key Concepts on Rural Land Use Planning and Land Evaluation; Definition of Land and its functions; The FAO Framework for Land Evaluation: concepts and procedures; Suitability Classification
TOOLS FOR LAND EVALUATION:
Crop Modelling: Introduction to crop modelling; Definitions and Classification; Processes to be simulated; Data needs. Practical applications of crop modelling in Land Evaluation.
Geographical Information Systems: principles and fundamentals; cartography, projections, Spatial data characteristics, Geoprocessing procedures, raster and vector data model, data harmonization, georeferencing, database management, spatial procedures. Practical applications of GIS in land evaluation.
Remote Sensing: principles and fundamentals on remote sensing; sensors, satellite images treatment and analysis; Classification maps; Validation of classifiers. Practical applications of remote sensing in land evaluation
The Global Agro-Ecological Zoning (GAEZ): Basics and practical examples
DATA NEEDS AND SOURCES FOR LAND EVALUATION: Climatic and Meteorological Datasets, Retrieving data for Topography, Hydrology, Soil and Land Cover, socio-economic information.