Precision Agriculture
The precision agriculture application does not directly benefit from the aerial image. The images taken must be processed to create an NDVI image that provides a measure of relative growth vigor on a field. With GIS-ready images, the NDVI can be converted into areas of varying growth for use with variable rate technology farm equipment.
The color image of the field below shows a significant variation in the growth vigor on a field. The task is to create an accurate prescription for the field based on these variations.
Here is the color infrared image of the same field.
The red and infrared data are combined to create the NDVI. This image provides the relative growth vigor for the field. The actual NDVI image is black and white but it is often converted into a colorized image to ease interpretation. In this example, the colors follow the standard color spectrum where the purple areas have the lowest growth vigor and the red areas show the highest vigor.
The color NDVI image is still not useful. We can easily distinguish between the different colors, but it is not in a form used by the variable rate technology equipment. We need to create shape files around each zone. A shape file is basically a line drawn around each of the different zones. EagleView makes it easy as it automatically creates these shape files. It also uses the field boundary to complete a useable shape file.
Comparing the zones with the original color image shows how well the growth vigor zones correlate with the original image. The prescription is also created as part of the process when using EagleView. The prescription defines exactly what rate is required for each zone on the field and is downloaded into the variable rate equipment to complete the process
View these articles and brochures for more information on agriculture. Or visit the links on the left-hand side of the page.
General Brochure (PDF, 34.6 MB)
We don't just do forestry! To find out more about our other applications (like mines, agriculture, streams and more), take a look at this brochure.
Agriculture Brochure (PDF, 19.0 MB)
Agriculture is another of our main application areas. We are able to provide color, infrared and even vegetation index images that can be used by themselves or integrated into GPS systems for precision agriculture. The possibilities are endless, and the information you can get from our images often can't be found anywhere else. Check out this brochure for details.