Geospatial Techniques and Methods for Sustainability in Agricultural Management

The role of high resolution geospatial techniques is increasingly recognized as key for managing inputs and making technical decisions in agriculture in view of the overall sustainability of the soil-crop-farming system. The task is challenging due to complex interactions between permanent and variable properties of soils, crop behavior, weather, climate, and anthropic dynamics. This implies that detection techniques are combined with approaches to data treatment and analysis and with support tools for decision making. Major issues are related to: - choosing strategic or tactic approaches to site-specific management - integrating plant and soil information from geospatial sensor data for decision making and identification of management zones - producing spatially- and agronomically-sound instructions for management. Applications are many including research, farm and environmental operations, and range from supporting soil sampling and experimental design, to monitoring environmental sustainability or providing spatial information for interpretating biometric, productive and qualitative data. This chapter reviews open issues and presents approaches to data treatment and interpretation based on the joint analysis of soil and plant spatial behavior.