This project was financed by the State Committee for Scientific Research

Main Sponsor:

• the Institute of Soil Science and Plant Cultivation

In cooperation with:

• the Institute of Geodesy and Cartography
• Geosystems-Polska Sp. z o.o.

Project date: April 1, 1998 through March 31, 2000.

The basic goal of the project is to collect and process agricultural data together with information about the natural environment so that rational decisions can be made with regard to what areas are best suitable for crop production. In order to meet the objectives the system has two components, inventorying and monitoring. Additionally it contains algorithms and models needed to process data, useful for supporting the decision making process. An important module of the system is an interface developed to allow access of users to basic information in the form of thematic maps.

The following computer programs are used in constructing the project: (Arc/Info, Arc/View, MapInfo, Erdas Imagine, Softplotter, MapSheets, Intergraph MGE).

The framework for the Integrated Spatial Information System for Agricultural Production has four main objectives:

• creating soil maps with erosion potential and erosion models at the district scale (IUNG),
• Agroclimate Model (IUNG),
• fluvial erosion model of all of Poland (Geosystems),
• crop forecasting (IGiK).

There is an application developed for each of the thematic groups that allows presentation of basic and more complex GIS analyses. Each function of the system (e.g. inventory, monitoring and forecasting) can be realized depending on the nature of a particular problem. In the case of soils, inventory and monitoring are the main problems while there is no prediction function. Separate applications may be used in generating complex analyses, which integrate data from different thematic groups. It is assumed that the system is open for new information, as it becomes available depending on the needs of the user.

Main components of the system are localized in institutions that developed them: (IUNG, IGiK, Geosystems).

The main hardware components of the IISAP include personal computers, large format scanners, plotters, and printers. Software includes both commercially available programs and customized models. Here are also some examples of thematic components:

• soil/agricultural complex,
• evaluation of agricultural space,
• soil characteristics,
• soil quality classes,
• soil pollution (values of five heavy metals and sulfur in soil),
• utilization of soils (i.e. crop, range, forestry),
• water erosion hazards,
• gully erosion model (1:500,000),
• fluvial erosion model,
• map database of variables in the agroclimate model (temperature, solar radiation, precipitation, crop suitability analysis, etc.),
• map database of crop yield prediction.

The most important component is the team with interdisciplinary approach of combining different fields of computer science, agriculture, climatology in building the system and marketing and advertising in disseminating the results.

The data for the system come from a variety of different sources. Most of the soil data came from analog maps or analog sources that needed to be converted to a digital format to eliminate non-linear deformation. This was the most laborious part of creating the databases. Another source of information was in tabular forms that had to be linked to a geometric database in order to evaluate the condition of the soil. Data from satellite and aerial photographs were processed to support the model evaluating erosion, yield-predicting etc. Finally, the last source of data came from computer models that generated sets of parameter data. Some of the data were available at the IUNG or could be accessed, downloaded as free domain data, or purchased.

The basic data for the model are points with three co-ordinates: latitude, longitude and height above sea level (a point cover). The points are evenly spaced over the area of Poland in a mesh 2 by 2 km and thus constitute a simple digital model of terrain (DTM). The values of the elements of agroclimate (temperature, precipitation, radiation) at each point over any arbitrary period can be computed with the aid of computer programs in which algorithms have been implemented for performing such calculations. The algorithms describe statistical distribution of basic climatic features at an arbitrary point in Poland in an arbitrary period. They link the yearly cycle of meteorological elements (determined with the aid of harmonic analysis) with their spatial image (as a function of geographic co-ordinates). Thus it has been made possible to describe mean values of climate elements as well as their variability (probability, risk etc.) using a PC. The output from the model may be also in the form of point and polygon covers of climatic elements on the basis of which maps that present distribution of elements of agroclimate over a given area may be created.

Results of the analyses and generated data have been presented on the Internet, CD-ROM, written reports and also at various conferences.

1. Mean Temperature
2. Length of Vegetation Period
3. Total Precipitation
4. Mean Precipitation for a Vegetation Period
5. Total Radiation
6. Dates of Corn Ripening
7. Agricultural / Soil Complex

Dr inż. Andrzej S. Zaliwski - Project Supervisor

Agrometeorlogical Component:

• Prof. dr hab. Tadeusz Górski - Supervisor of Agrometeorlogical Component
• Dr Gustaw Demidowicz

Erosion Component:

• Prof. dr hab. Anna Józefaciuk - Supervisor of Erosion Component
• Dr Jan Jadczyszyn

Soil Component:

• Prof. dr hab. Henryk Terelak - Supervisor of Soil Component
• Dr Tomasz Stuczyński