Data Integration for Farm Management Using ArcView, ArcIMS, and ArcView Image Analysis

Every potential application of GIS in agriculture is different; however, there are certain underlying principles that remain the same. Agricultural users need access to data to make informed decisions, tools to assist them to handle different data types, and a fully integrated software solution that really helps the decision making process. Agriculture can be considered a new area for GIS adoption; however, aerial photographs and satellite images have been used successfully for more than 70 years. Such data is generally raster based, that is to say, made up of a patchwork of discrete cells or pixels. Data layers that are made up of points, lines, and polygons are known as vector data. Raster data can be combined with vector data, but it does require different tools for management and interpretation. The ArcView Image Analysis extension provides the farmer with the necessary tools to carry out simple procedures that greatly increase the return on investments made in satellite images or aerial photographs. Applications include the ability to estimate crop yields, the remote estimation of areas within a field that are suffering a form of stress perhaps caused by a specific pest, and the identification of areas of land suffering from soil erosion. Integrated within the desktop software package ArcView GIS, the two software programs combine to provide a low-cost GIS solution sufficient for the farmer or land use manager who wishes to gain a firm foothold in precision agriculture.

Sharing agricultural data across often great distances can prove to be difficult. With the advent of the Internet, data can now be moved more easily, but how can the farmer benefit from this? Whether providing data to a manager in the head office or receiving real-time weather data, land managers will only continue to increase their reliance upon the Internet. However, a potential stumbling block will be the lack of computer experience in the agricultural sector, both developing and developed. A comparatively simple solution comes in the form of ArcIMS. The Internet Map Server allows the creation of Web pages containing agricultural data in map form that can be accessed by other people browsing the Internet. Designed to accommodate people who are not computer wizards, ArcIMS allows the user to rapidly put farm data on the Internet.

As agriculture becomes more reliant on information that is frequently provided from locations far from the farm, data integration will continue to grow in importance. ESRI recognizes this and has developed the suitable ArcIMS tools to meet the challenge.