mapsens agro – TYC GIS – GIS, Teledetección y Drones

Projects TYC GIS® | Agricultural survey with satellite, orthophoto and drone imagery

Rodrigo Arias Braun — Thu, 23 May 2024 15:26:01 +0000

Remote sensing images (obtained through satellites, planes or drones) can be of great interest for the execution of certain agricultural survey studies. where it is interesting to have at its disposal a geolocalized data source, that is reliable and reproducible by the opposing party in order to avoid it being disputed.

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.

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Projects TYC GIS® | Agroforestry carbon dioxide absorption project in Zambia

Rodrigo Arias Braun — Thu, 23 May 2024 09:45:51 +0000

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

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Project | Mapsens Agro | Mapping and inventory of oil palm cultivation

TYC GIS — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 12:20:06 +0000

● Location: Meta department (Colombia)
● Surface area: 3000 hectares
● Data source: Drone
● Main objective: Identify living palms and crop failures.
● General objective: Conduct a general inventory of the crop with precise data on the condition of the crop in terms of number of palms
● Date: December, 2023

Data collection is perfomed, it gets processed and the inventory is generated identifying living palms with a 1 and failures with a 0, indicating the row and numbering order nomenclature given at the time of planting.

Crop inventory from drone data provides a detailed compilation and valuable information about the condition, health and development of a specific area of the crop. Thin inventory is created from data collected by drones equipped with specialized sensors during planned flights over the areas of interest.

If you wish to know more about our precision agriculture SMART AGRO app, contact us here TYC GIS. SMART AGRO app uses drone, satellite, weather and field sensors data.

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Project | Mapsens Agro | Citrus plantation mapping and inventory with drones

TYC GIS — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 11:37:20 +0000

● Property: La Venta
● Location: Valle del Cauca department (Colombia)
● Surface area: 231 hectares
● Data source: Drone
● Main objective: Identify the amount of trees
● General objective: Conduct the general inventory of the crop with precise data of the crop condition in terms of number of trees and their heighs.
● Date: November, 2023

Data collection is performed. Data is then processed and an inventory is generated identifying every tree and their heighs.

Citric crop inventory is carried out through the use of drone technology, which allows to collect precise data of the condition and health of the plantation. This method revolutionized the way agricultural data is collected and processed, providing a complete and updated view of the citrus field.

If you wish to know more about our SMART AGRO app, contact us here TYC GIS. It uses data from drones, satellites, field sensors and weather.

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Project | Mapsens® Agro | System for control and optimization of pruning/clearing works for oil wells

TYC GIS — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 11:40:39 +0000

In this project TYC GIS worked on the development of a system to control and optimize the pruning/clearing of 135 oil wells in the Castilla and Chichimene fields (Colombia) with Mapsens® Agro.

The work began with the generation of detailed orthoimages of the locations and a digitalization of the vegetated and built-up areas. From this point on, these areas have been analyzed monthly with multispectral satellites. Monthly measurements have also been taken to relate vegetation height/development with the photosynthetic activity value to generate a predictive model to help plan maintenance works.

All this information is loaded into Mapsens® Agro for consultation. To improve its analysis, specific functionalities have been developed: a well finder/locator, pruning indexes (growth, clearing and stable), vegetation height estimation function, and a summary table of the general status of each well with areas worked, evolution, etc.

Customer:

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