Tools and methodologies for the study and monitoring of crop development, growth and management.
GIS: cartography and GIS tools, applications of GIS tools in precision and sustainable agriculture.
REMOTE SENSING: fundamentals of remote sensing, remote sensing applications in precision and sustainable agriculture.
CROP MODELLING : types of models, use of models to reproduce crop development and growth in precision and sustainable agriculture
Handouts distributed during classes, learning material produced by the teacher, scientific papers and on-line handouts.
GIS: QGIS tutorial (http://www.qgistutorials.com/en/)
REMOTE SENSING: QGIS tutorial and Semi-automatic classification plug-in (https://fromgistors.blogspot.com/p/semi-automatic-classification-plugin.html)
CROP MODELLING: Modelling crop development, growth and yield (Soltani and Sinclair, 2012) , Simulation models of agricultural crops (Maracchi et al.)
Learning Objectives
Acquired Knowledge: tools and methodologies for monitoring and studying the effect of environment and management on crop development and growth.
Acquired skills (at the end of the course):
GIS: analysis of the components of a GIS, knowledge of the tool QGIS, geographical data management and handling, main geo-processing tools.
REMOTE SENSING: analysis of the components of the software for the treatment of images, main operations of image classification, retrieval and treatment of images.
CROP MODELLING: analysis of factors affecting growth and development of agricultural crops; knowledge of the modelling tool for determining the response of plants to environmental conditions and its use for the identification of sustainable agricultural practices
Teaching Methods
Numero di ore totali del corso: 150 (= 6 x 25) Numero di ore per studio personale e altre attività formative di tipo individuale: 102
48 ore di didattica frontale da suddividersi in attività in aula ed esercitazioni:
TEORIA (tot 14 ore): GIS, 3 ore; TELERILEVAMENTO, 4 ore; MODELLISTICA, 7 ore.
PRATICA (tot 34 ore): GIS, 10 ore; TELERILEVAMENTO, 7 ore; MODELLISTICA, 17 ore. Total number of hours: 150 (= 6 x 25)Number of hours for personal study and other individual training activities: 102
48 hours of teaching split in theoretical lessons and practical lessons as following:
THEORY (tot 14 hours): GIS, 3 hours; REMOTE SENSING, 4 hours; MODELLING, 7 hours.
PRACTICE (tot 34 hours): GIS, 10 hours; REMOTE SENSING, 7 hours, MODELLING: 17 hours
Further information
Attendance to frontal class and practical lessons: highly recommended.
Teaching tools: open-source softwares
Type of Assessment
Method: report and presentation of the work done in an assigned exercise.
Evaluation: The evaluation will take into account the complexity of the study, the methodological development of the study, the autonomy shown in the execution of the work, the presentation of the results in terms of completeness, explanatory and terminological clarity, ability to critically analyze the results obtained
Course program
FRONTAL LESSONS:
GIS: definitions, components of a GIS, spatial data structure, vector data and raster data model, spatial databases, queries, thematic layers, GIS operators, geoprocessing, principles of cartography, geographical projections, geographic data format, GIS in precision agriculture, overview on GIS software.
REMOTE SENSING: definitions, fundamentals of remote sensing, satellites, drones, sensors, spectral signatures, image resolution (spatial, spectral temporal and radiometric) , image processing, vegetation indexes.
CROP MODELLING: Basics of crop modelling: definitions and classifications, main components of a crop model, description of the main biophysical processes to be simulated, calibration and evaluation of models. Scaling issues in coupling crop models with climatic data: Climatic models and downscaling methodologies.
PRACTICAL LESSONS:
GIS: use of GIS software to produce thematic maps and data analysis.
REMOTE SENSING: image processing and classification to monitor vegetation.
CROP MODELLING: use of models to simulate development and growth of crops under different managements and environmental conditions.