Some examples of such applications include irrigation certifications, which demostrate the use of irrigation rigth given a certain data range, farms apprisal, for appraisals or productivity assessments, insurance claims for damages due, for example, weather events, settlement of boundaries or right of way disputes, or any other study that the expert surveyor needs to prove certain use, present or past, that can be analyzed through images adquired by satellites or aerial platforms.
An export report based on remote sensing data can be used in an insurance claim, in an appeal to a public administration or even in court proceedings if necessary.

Irrigation certifications

The existence of a satellite image archive, for example the case of Landsat, free and open since the 70s, enables to perform historical studies of the presence of irrigation crops. From these analysis we can, for example, prove that a given farm was irrigating before certain date or date range and therefore holds irrigation rights or can challenge the expiry of a concession.

Evolution of the NDVI index between may and june of 1997.

Calculation of irrigated surface per plot between may and june of 1997.

Property valuation

Images obtained through drones or satellites are a very interesting tool to assess the current state of a property, its evolution over time or to evaluate its past behaviour. This information can be used to carry out farms appraisals or to carry out historical productivity studies and include them in the valuation.

Example of satellite image where management patterns are observed.

Mapsens Agro App showing an inventory of olive trees generated through drone flight for a farm valuation.

Insurance claims

The fact that satellite images are a truthful and replicable data source, they can be used as a basis for agricultural insurance claims, for example in the case of climate events such as drought, frost, hailstorms, etc. As well as mapping and detecting the affected area, we can classify the surface area depending on the severity of the damages and provide much more detailed and complete information.

Damage on crops caused by hailstorm (Top natular color, bottom infrared false color).
Source: NASA Earth Observatory, Landsat 8, 2018.

Boundary disputes and rigths of way.

Not only satellite images can have expert value, but also aerial photographs taken by different state and regional public entities, such as Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN) in Spain or the geographical services of Autonomous Communities or City Councils.

Comparison of official cadastral mapping with current and historical aerial photograph can help analyze or resolve conflict between different landowners over the position of boundaries or right of way to the properties.

American flight orthophoto (1956, left) and PNOA most current (2022, right).

At TYC GIS we have extensive experience on both the preparation of expert survey informs for agricultural applications and on other fields, such as expert testimony in legal proceedings.

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. ]]> https://tycgis.com/en/projects-tyc-gis-agricultural-survey-with-satellite-orthophoto-and-drone-imagery/feed/ 0 https://tycgis.com/en/projects-tyc-gis-agroforestry-carbon-dioxide-absorption-project-in-zambia/ https://tycgis.com/en/projects-tyc-gis-agroforestry-carbon-dioxide-absorption-project-in-zambia/#respond Thu, 23 May 2024 09:45:51 +0000 https://tycgis.com/?p=9755 At TYC GIS we have worked the last months in a agroforestry CO₂ absorption project carried out in 10 districts of the western province of Zambia by the multinational company ETG, specialized in the trading of agricultural products.

The project, at its current stage, has consisted on the planting of aproximately 120.000 cashew trees (Anacardium occidentale) distributed betweeen 1700 plots dedicated to subsistence agriculture that sum up more than 2000 hectares of surface area. Besides them, further extensions of the project are planned, that will make these numbers to grow in the future.

The trees we delivered during the 2019/2020 plantation season by ETG to those farmers who previously offered their plots for plantation, therefore this project having also a strong social component that improve the living conditions of the local population, since farmers can gain benefit from the sale of cashew nuts.

After 4 years since the trees were planted, work began to apply for the project validation and the first verification of the carbon credits generated to the certifier body. It is during this process that ETG has relied on the services provided by TYC GIS.

Work carried out

1. Project surface mapping

The first work consisted on the mapping of the surface area of the project, this is, digitise all the planting plots so their geometries can be used on GIS.

To undertake this work, TYC GIS developed its own mobile app with all the necessary tools to digitise on the field the plots and to include all the data that was considered relevant.

The digitisation of plots was carried out by a local ETG team consisting in 12 field digitisers who were previously trained on the use of the mobile app by a TYC GIS team. This training was carried out face to face in the classrooms of Namushakende agricultural training centre, located in the Mongu district, where the capital of the west province is, and also closeby to some planting plots so they could practice what they learned.

Once the digitising process started, all the simultaneously produced information by the 12 digitisers, was stored in real time in a spatial database connected to the mobile app and created specifically for this project. This database was also reviewed daily by the TYC GIS team in Spain to issue reports and to produce all kinds of statistics and graphical elements on the digitisation.

2. Mapping review

As the digitisation process progressed, TYC GIS team was carrying out a detailed and indepth review of the results. This review was carried out based on current high definition satellite images and consisted on the supervision and possible modification of the geometries, error removal and classification of each plot into 5 different tree density classes towards the project stratification.

3. Field sampling

Once all the plots were digitised and checked, the field sampling was designed to quantificate the carbon present in the planted trees. This sampling consisted in a traditional forest inventory with field measurements in sample plots and on photogrametric and multispectral drone flights towards the monitoring of the trees condition and the measurement of the morphological parameters of the trees.

The chosen method for the forest inventory was the stratified random sampling. The stratification consisted in the plot classification in 5 classes according to the density of the trees present in them, and, after calculating the number of plots to sample for each class, their random location within the area occupied by each class was carried out.

After the design of the sampling phase, two TYC GIS teams traveled to Zambia to carry out the field sampling. Samplijg plots were located and measurements of different morphological variables were taken on all the trees located inside them. Besides that, all the surface area of the planted plots where sampling plots were located was flown with a drone in order to obtain photogrametric and multispectral data.

4. Absorption calculation, baseline, additionality and CO2 final balance.

Once back in Spain, the calculations of the CO₂ absorbed by the planted trees during the period to verify in the more than 2000 hectares of the project was carried out, thanks to the measurements taken in the field.

But this is not all, it was also necessary to calculate the possible carbon losses due to wildfires, as well as the carbon that would have been absorbed in the surface area currently occupied by the planted plots if this planting had not been carried out. The latter is known as project baseline.

Both calculations were carried out through remote sensing techniques and GIS operations. In the baseline case, the methodology used for the carbon credit certification required a procedure known as “Performance Benchmark” to be carried out. This is a dynamic method based on the calculation of a remote sensing index related to the stored carbon on a given surface. This index has to be calculated, for the verifying period, both on the random selection of small areas belonging to the project and on a representative sample of areas outside of the project but located in the surrounding area and with similar characteristics.

The result of the “Performance Benchmark” is the percentage of carbon stored by the project that would have been stored anyways if the project had not been implemented. Besides, the “Performance Benchmark” method is also used to demostrate the additionality of the project, this is, that its CO₂ absorptions are higher than the baseline, which is a requirement for any CO₂ absorption project.

Finally, the final balance of CO₂ absorption of the project was calculated and with it the carbon credits to request. Also, all the documentation requested by the certifying body related to the work of TYC GIS was elaborated, including mapping products, results tables or GIS shapefiles.

Customer: ETG Climate Solutions

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. ]]> https://tycgis.com/en/projects-tyc-gis-agroforestry-carbon-dioxide-absorption-project-in-zambia/feed/ 0 https://tycgis.com/en/projects-tyc-gis-inventory-and-green-areas-management-plugin-for-the-cities-from-banco-santander/ https://tycgis.com/en/projects-tyc-gis-inventory-and-green-areas-management-plugin-for-the-cities-from-banco-santander/#respond Mon, 20 May 2024 15:02:56 +0000 https://tycgis.com/?p=9763 In the same line as the urban inventory management plugins previously developed for the city hall of Pozuelo de Alarcón and Avilés, we have carried out a new work for inventory management, in this case it will be the botanical inventory of the Santander Bank in the cities of Pozuelo de Alarcón and Madrid.

Despite sharing a lot, this plugin requiered some modifications for the peculiarities of this inventory. We moved on to having fewer shapes, focusing only on general trees, olive trees, bushes, shrub thickets and grasslands. However, the data available for each shape, specially for olive trees and shrub thickets, required a complete reformulation of the data model.

The olive trees have a data model that distinguish them from the other trees, they have a name, date, and being all the elements of the same species, the classification of families and species, and the symbology asociated, had to be replaced. The customer also have pictures of the olive trees, and of other shapes too. To mantain the lightness of the data base and ensure the agile handling of the shapes, an action was introduced that enables the pictures to be opened in the web browser. This allows to make a fast query of the pictures, but avoids the problems that loading a hole shape of pictures may cause.

In the case of shrubs thickets, they are kept as polygonal entities, but we now face multispecies polygons, on which they can coexists up to three species. This required first a change in the logic of the data base, so it can adapt to the existence of several species and to guarantee the logical order of the species inside the table, preventing, for example, that that a species occupy the value of the third species, if there is no species in the place of the main species. A style was created that analyze the amount of species of each polygon and respects the symbology of the main species, but indicating that it is not the only species in that space.

Another innovation introduced, upon the customer request, was a species finder. In previous plugins, to find a species we had to chose first a family and inside it we chose the species. Now, although it can still be done this way, a finder was implemented that search among the species of all families if the family field is blank and can search for the species inside a specific family.

In additon to this innovations, the plugin maintains all the capabillities of the previous ones, giving the control for creation, removal and editing of entities for the “user” access level, user administration for the “admin” level and an additional “visitor” level that allows to make queries without the possibility of making changes in the data base.

Customer:

If you need help with a similar project, contact us here TYC GIS.

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it. ]]> https://tycgis.com/en/projects-tyc-gis-inventory-and-green-areas-management-plugin-for-the-cities-from-banco-santander/feed/ 0 https://tycgis.com/en/urban-services-project-support-in-the-preparation-of-cartography-for-the-urban-cleaning-services-of-the-municipality-of-iurreta/ https://tycgis.com/en/urban-services-project-support-in-the-preparation-of-cartography-for-the-urban-cleaning-services-of-the-municipality-of-iurreta/#respond Thu, 09 Feb 2023 16:02:07 +0000 https://tycgis.com/?p=9302 Work was carried out to support the cartographic generation and mapping of routes for the urban and beach cleaning service in the municipality of Iurreta (Vizcaya), using Geographic Information Systems.

Mapped services:

o Manual sweeping with trolley and vehicle.
o Mechanical sweeping of sidewalks and pedestrian areas.
o Mechanical sweeping of roadways.
o Manual sidewalk washing.
o Mechanical street washing.

Brief description:

The works encompassed the sectorization of the itineraries of the different services, the layout of the optimal routes for each of the itineraries taking into account the specific characteristics of each of the services and the generation of individual plans of the distribution of the warehouse and layout of the itineraries for the correct monitoring by the operators.

Customer:

The municipalities adhered to this West lot are: La Albuera, Alburquerque, Alconchel, Barbaño, Barcarrota, Carmonita, Cheles, La Codosera and pedanías, Cordobilla de Lácara, Entrín Bajo and Entrín Alto, Feria, Fregenal de la Sierra, Guadajira, Higuera de Vargas, Higuera la Real, Jerez de los Caballeros, Lobón, Montijo, La Morera, La Nava de Santiago, Nogales, Oliva de la Frontera, La Parra, Puebla de la Calzada, Puebla de Obando, Pueblonuevo del Guadiana, La Roca de la Sierra, Salvaleón, Salvatierra de los Barros, Santa Marta de los Barros, Talavera la Real, Táliga, Valdelacalzada, Valencia del Mombuey, Valle de Matamoros, Valle de Santa Ana, Villalba de los Barros, Villanueva del Fresno, Villar del Rey and Zahínos.

Mapped services:
o Collection of residual waste.
o Collection of organic waste.
o Collection of light packaging waste.
o Collection of paper and cardboard waste.

Brief description:

The works encompassed the layout of the routes for each of the itineraries, taking into account the optimal order of the municipalities, and the generation of an interactive map, complying with the requirements of the State Contracting Platform, which allows selecting within the same PDF the itinerary in particular for the correct monitoring by the operators.

Customer:

Support was provided in the generation of cartography, review of data collection and layout of routes in the offer for the urban cleaning service in the municipality of Chiclana de la Frontera (Cádiz), using Geographic Information Systems.

Mapped services:

o Sweeping (manual, brigade, maintenance, mechanical, mixed and related).
o Washing (manual, mechanical, mixed and related).
o Weeding.
o Scrubbing.
o Other services (plastering, leaf fall, cleaning of event areas in times of celebrations, etc.).

Brief description:

The works included the review of the data collection (sidewalks, curbs, litter garbage cans, etc.) performed in the field by the client, the sectorization of the itineraries of the different services, the layout of the optimal routes for each of the itineraries taking into account the characteristics of each of the services. Finally, individual plans were generated for the correct monitoring of the itinerary by the operators.

Customer:

Mapped services:

o Collection of residual waste.
o Collection of packaging waste.
o Collection of paper and cardboard waste.
o Collection of organic waste.

Brief description:

The work encompassed the layout of the optimal routes for each of the itineraries taking into account the characteristics of the machinery and the streets (narrow streets, dirt roads, etc) and the generation of individual plans for the correct monitoring of the itinerary by the personnel.

Customer:

Mapped services:

o Manual sweeping.
o Mechanical sweeping of sidewalks.
o Mechanical sweeping of roadways.
o Mixed sweeping.
o Re-sweeping
o Mixed washing.
o Mechanical washing.

Brief description:

The work encompassed a field study of the cleaning sector, the sectorization of the itineraries of the different services, the layout of the optimal routes for each of the itineraries taking into account the characteristics of each of the services and the generation of an interactive map, complying with the requirements of the State Contracting Platform, which allows selecting within the same PDF the itinerary in particular for the correct monitoring by the operators.

Customer:

Support was provided in the cartographic generation and routing of the urban cleaning service in the municipality of Las Gabias (Granada), using Geographic Information Systems.

Mapped services:

o Manual sweeping.
o Motorized manual sweeping.
o Mixed sweeping.
o Mechanical road sweeping.
o Clean points service.

Brief description:

The works encompassed the sectorization of the itineraries of the different services, the layout of the optimal routes for each of the itineraries taking into account the characteristics of each of the sweeps and the generation of an interactive map, complying with the requirements of the State Contracting Platform, which allows selecting within the same PDF the itinerary for the correct monitoring by the operators.

Customer:

Used data:

o Satellite: Landsat.
o Resolution: 30 m/píxel
o Bands: VIS, NIR y SWIR
o Years: 1990 a 1997.
o Period: late spring and summer.

Brief description:

To carry out the work, the Landsat images were first analyzed for the presence of any evidence of irrigation presence in the plots indicated by the customer, between the late spring and summer of the years 90 to 97, and the dates on which the highest probability of irrigation was observed were chosen.

To select the images, it was taken into account that they should be close to the end of spring, since this is the time when a cereal crop should have at least one support irrigation to remain green once the possible winter rains have ceased and the water reserve in the soil has been reduced, so the climatology of each year was also taken into account to determine if there were late rains that could condition the results.

From the downloaded images of the selected dates, several vegetation indices were calculated and statistics were generated for each of the indicated plots to determine the degree of probability of the presence of at least one supporting irrigation.

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