• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2005.08a
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• pp.22-46
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• 2005

Spatial and timely information on crop and filed conditions is one of the most important basics for rational and efficient planning and management in agriculture. Remote sensing, GIS, and modeling are powerful tools for such applications. This paper presents an overview of the state of the art in remote sensing of crop and field conditions with some case studies. It is also shown that a synergistic linkage between process-based models and remote sensing signatures enables us to estimate the multiple crop/ecosystem variables at a dynamic mode. Remotely sensed information can greatly reduce the uncertainty of simulation models by compensating for insufficient availability of data or parameters. This synergistic approach allows the effective use of infrequent and multi-source remote sensing data for estimating important ecosystem variables such as biomass growth and ecosystem $CO_2$ flux. This paper also shows a geo-spatial information system that enables us to integrate, search, extract, process, transform, and calculate any part of the data based on ID#, attributes, and/or by river-basin boundary, administrative boundary, or boundaries of arbitrary shape/size all over Japan. A case study using the system demonstrates that the nitrogen load from fertilizer was closely related to nitrate concentration of groundwater. The combined use of remote sensing, GIS and modeling would have great potential for various agro-ecosystem applications.

• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Conference
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• 2014.10a
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• pp.1-24
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• 2014

This study uses geo-spatial crop modeling to quantify the biophysical impact of weather extremes. More specifically, the study analyzes the weather extreme which affected maize production in the USA in 2012; it also estimates the effect of a similar weather extreme in 2050, using future climate scenarios. The secondary impact of the weather extreme on food security in the developing world is also assessed using trend analysis. Many studies have reported on the significant reduction in maize production in the USA due to the extreme weather event (combined heat wave and drought) that occurred in 2012. However, most of these studies focused on yield and did not assess the potential effect of weather extremes on food prices and security. The overall goal of this study was to use geo-spatial crop modeling and trend analysis to quantify the impact of weather extremes on both yield and, followed food security in the developing world. We used historical weather data for severe extreme events that have occurred in the USA. The data were obtained from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In addition we used five climate scenarios: the baseline climate which is typical of the late 20th century (2000s) and four future climate scenarios which involve a combination of two emission scenarios (A1B and B1) and two global circulation models (CSIRO-Mk3.0 and MIROC 3.2). DSSAT 4.5 was combined with GRASS GIS for geo-spatial crop modeling. Simulated maize grain yield across all affected regions in the USA indicates that average grain yield across the USA Corn Belt would decrease by 29% when the weather extremes occur using the baseline climate. If the weather extreme were to occur under the A1B emission scenario in the 2050s, average grain yields would decrease by 38% and 57%, under the CSIRO-Mk3.0 and MIROC 3.2 global climate models, respectively. The weather extremes that occurred in the USA in 2012 resulted in a sharp increase in the world maize price. In addition, it likely played a role in the reduction in world maize consumption and trade in 2012/13, compared to 2011/12. The most vulnerable countries to the weather extremes are poor countries with high maize import dependency ratios including those countries in the Caribbean, northern Africa and western Asia. Other vulnerable countries include low-income countries with low import dependency ratios but which cannot afford highly-priced maize. The study also highlighted the pathways through which a weather extreme would affect food security, were it to occur in 2050 under climate change. Some of the policies which could help vulnerable countries counter the negative effects of weather extremes consist of social protection and safety net programs. Medium- to long-term adaptation strategies include increasing world food reserves to a level where they can be used to cover the production losses brought by weather extremes.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.113-119
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• 1998

Spatial patterns of soil temperature on sloping lands are related to the amount of solar irradiance at the surface. Since soil temperature is a critical determinant of many biological processes occurring in the soil, an accurate prediction of soil temperature distribution could be beneficial to agricultural and environmental management. However, at least two problems are identified in soil temperature prediction over natural sloped surfaces. One is the complexity of converting solar irradiances to corresponding soil temperatures, and the other, if the first problem could be solved, is the difficulty in handling large volumes of geo-spatial data. Recent developments in geographic information systems (GIS) provide the opportunity and tools to spatially organize and effectively manage data for modeling. In this paper, a simple model for conversion of solar irradiance to soil temperature is developed within a GIS environment. The irradiance-temperature conversion model is based on a geophysical variable consisting of daily short- and long-wave radiation components calculated for any slope. The short-wave component is scaled to accommodate a simplified surface energy balance expression. Linear regression equations are derived for 10 and 50 cm soil temperatures by using this variable as a single determinant and based on a long term observation data set from a horizontal location. Extendability of these equations to sloped surfaces is tested by comparing the calculated data with the monthly mean soil temperature data observed in Iowa and at 12 locations near the Tennessee - Kentucky border with various slope and aspect factors. Calculated soil temperature variations agreed well with the observed data. Finally, this method is applied to a simulation study of daily mean soil temperatures over sloped corn fields on a 30 m by 30 m resolution. The outputs reveal potential effects of topography including shading by neighboring terrain as well as the slope and aspect of the land itself on the soil temperature.