Category Archives: Enviro/Ag
Satellite Signals Steer Farmers Straight
Precision agriculture combines GPS, remote sensing, and GIS to capture large amounts of georeferenced data on spatial variations in soil types, moisture content, nutrient availability, and crop yields and then create and follow prescription maps. Until recently, it was difficult for growers to correlate soil and crop information with production techniques, so they generally treated...
Crafting The Future via Geodesign
Geodesign is on the move. While the term may be new to some, it is an old concept getting new life via modern technology: how the science of geography should inform our methods of design. In that sense, geodesign is an applied science, and we humans have been doing it naturally since the dawn of...
What is xyHt?
Stand in the place where you live Now face North Think about direction Wonder why you haven’t before “Stand” – R.E.M. Why an obscure geodetic expression? It’s not all that obscure—it represents a foundational element requisite to nearly all human endeavor. It touches your life explicitly and in the abstract. All of the ways that...
Wetlands Synergism
Professional interdependency is at the core of this project for acquiring federal conservation easements and restoring wetlands in Tennessee. Each item we touch these days has been shaped by a village of experts, from that cell phone in your pocket to the water coming out of the nearest drinking fountain. The surveying and engineering professions...
Mobile System Alerts Dubai Drivers of Approaching Sandstorms
Periodically, large sandstorms and low-visibility conditions wreak havoc in the Middle East, with potentially deadly consequences for drivers. In 2007, a sandstorm in Saudi Arabia caused a pileup involving about 80 cars. In 2008, low-visibility conditions caused a 200-car pileup on the border between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, killing about 25 people. In April 2012, a...
Satellite Imagery for Precision Agriculture
Precision agriculture consists primarily of using geospatial technologies to map spatial variations in crop and soil conditions and to match inputs—such as water, seed, and fertilizer—to those variations by applying them at variable rates. The link between the spatial variations and the variable rates are zone maps and prescription maps. The former show the difference...