GPS Data Processing - GIS Data Interpretation
GPS Data collection is useless without GPS Data Processing and GIS Data interpretation
GPS data and GIS data collected on farms can amount to huge data
files. These data files can become so difficult and time consuming to
manage that they are neglected, and the potential benefit of the data
is wasted.
For any data source to be useful, it has to be processed,
simplified and interpreted to extract useful and useable information
for farm management. Data on its own is has limited uses, but manipulation of data highlights differences within the data set. This type of
information is key to maximising data potential.
A few key points have to be addressed in processing large data sources from agricultural farm GPS machines:-
- Just because data has been collected, it is not necessarily useful. Data must be examined and rogue data removed.
- With large data sets it is easy to get distracted by the sheer size of the data set and the extremes of data recorded. Clear boundaries should be set for the purpose of the data set, whether yield maps of fields etc.. Then the general trend should be examined first before looking at the intricacy of the data extremes.
Examples of GPS data processing and GIS data interpretation
- Access corrupt GPS mapping data, to release more data. Corrupt data can stop whole files of information from being readable. This problem is becoming less as data logging has improved in recent years.
- Compile GPS mapping data over a period of years. This has been done for GPS nutrient mapping, GPS yield mapping. See case study of GPS yield mapping, case study of GPS soil sampling and case study of GPS farm mapping.
- Save GPS mapping data in easily accessible form for future use. An industry standard is now csv or txt files, and these are accessible by most GPS data logging software.
- Simplifying GPS mapping data into manageable zones of data. Data zones need to be useable for farm management as well as maximising data information. For example yield data can be divided into simply high/ medium/ low yield zones. GPS soil sampling data into standard index zones as opposed to intricate mg/l zones.
- Combine GPS data from various sources: eg combine GPS altitude data with GPS emi data, or combine GPS soil sampling data with GPS yield data.
Willington Crop Services offers crop services including soil sampling, precision farming UK, GPS soil sampling, GPS mapping, GPS nutrient maps, nutrient management, crop advice and agronomy service.Willington Crop Services is located in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, UK. Working on farms with farmers in agriculture in Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire in East Anglia, UK.
