Engineering Commons^™

Sustainability Of Industrialized Agriculture, Fall/Winter 2002, Issue 5

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Local Foods, Fall/Winter 2013, Issue 27

Sustain Magazine

No abstract provided.

Embedded System Design Of Robot Control Architectures For Unmanned Agricultural Ground Vehicles, Ryan Humphrey

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Engineering technology has matured to the extent where accompanying methods for unmanned field management is now becoming a technologically achievable and economically viable solution to agricultural tasks that have been traditionally performed by humans or human operated machines. Additionally, the rapidly increasing world population and the daunting burden it places on farmers in regards to the food production and crop yield demands, only makes such advancements in the agriculture industry all the more imperative. Consequently, the sector is beginning to observe a noticeable shift, where there exist a number of scalable infrastructural changes that are in the process of slowly …

Estimation Of Surface Thermal Emissivity In A Vineyard For Uav Microbolometer Thermal Cameras Using Nasa Hytes Hyperspectral Thermal, And Landsat And Aggieair Optical Data, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, Mahyar Aboutalebi, Timothy Wright, Ayman Nassar, Pierre Guillevic, Lawrence Hipps, Feng Gao, Kevin Jim, Maria Mar Alsina, Calvin Coopmans, Mac Mckee, William Kustas

AggieAir Publications

Microbolometer thermal cameras in UAVs and manned aircraft allow for the acquisition of highresolution temperature data, which, along with optical reflectance, contributes to monitoring and modeling of agricultural and natural environments. Furthermore, these temperature measurements have facilitated the development of advanced models of crop water stress and evapotranspiration in precision agriculture and heat fluxes exchanges in small river streams and corridors. Microbolometer cameras capture thermal information at blackbody or radiometric settings (narrowband emissivity equates to unity). While it is customary that the modeler uses assumed emissivity values (e.g. 0.99– 0.96 for agricultural and environmental settings); some applications (e.g. Vegetation Health …

Validation Of Digital Surface Models (Dsms) Retrieved From Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (Uav) Point Clouds Using Geometrical Information From Shadows, Mahyar Aboutalebi, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, Mac Mckee, William Kustas, Héctor Nieto, Calvin Coopmans

AggieAir Publications

Theoretically, the appearance of shadows in aerial imagery is not desirable for researchers because it leads to errors in object classification and bias in the calculation of indices. In contrast, shadows contain useful geometrical information about the objects blocking the light. Several studies have focused on estimation of building heights in urban areas using the length of shadows. This type of information can be used to predict the population of a region, water demand, etc., in urban areas. With the emergence of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and the availability of high- to super-high-resolution imagery, the important questions relating to shadows …

Utilization Of Remote Sensing Data For Estimation Of The Groundwater Storage Variation, Gaurang Mistry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Groundwater is the most extracted raw material, with an average withdrawal rate of 982 km3 per year, where 70 percent of the total groundwater withdrawn is used for agriculture globally (Margat & van der Gun, 2013). With climate change and increased water demands in recent years, monitoring the changes in the groundwater storage is of the utmost importance. This thesis presents an analysis that determines the rates, trends, and directions where groundwater storage is going in Pakistan. It also correlates fluctuations in groundwater storage with variations in precipitation and agricultural productivity in the country. The overall objectives of this thesis …

Nitrate Dynamics In An Arid Irrgation Network: Can Nutrient Loops Be Closed With Management Techniques?, Kelsey B. Bicknell

Civil Engineering ETDs

Nutrients are the third leading cause of impairment in aquatic ecosystems, yet they remain necessary to support our growing agriculture system. Mining (as with phosphorus) and manufacturing (as with synthetic nitrogen) fertilizers deplete non-renewable resources and consume large amounts of energy. We have opportunities to optimize food-energy-water (FEW) resources, particularly in arid regions where wastewater, rather than agriculture, is the number one contributor of nutrients. This study evaluates the capacity of three unique channels (i.e., the Drain canal, the Delivery canal, and the Rio Grande River) within the agriculture system of the Middle Rio Grande Valley to process nutrients from …

1901 - Soil Survey Of The Lower Salinas Valley California, Macy H. Lapham And W. H. Heileman

Miscellaneous Monterey and San Luis Obispo County Documents and Reports

Prepared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils, this report addresses the conditions found in the Lower Salinas Valley of Monterey County, California in 1901, including the development of agriculture, climate, geology, soil types, cultivation, irrigation. groundwater, and alkali found in the soil.

1901 - Soil Survey Of The Lower Salinas Valley California, Macy H. Lapham And W. H. Heileman

Miscellaneous Documents and Reports

Prepared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Soils, this report addresses the conditions found in the Lower Salinas Valley of Monterey County, California in 1901, including the development of agriculture, climate, geology, soil types, cultivation, irrigation. groundwater, and alkali found in the soil.

1993 - Lessons Learned From The California Drought (1987-1992) - National Study Of Water Management During Drought

Miscellaneous Documents and Reports

The 1987-92 drought in California put the long-term strategy of drought protection as well as short-term drought response measures to a severe test. The report provides background information and data on California's economy and water resources, the existing water management system. , a chronology of major drought events and significant drought response actions during the droughts.

The report summarizes the contents of the interviews pertaining to four general aspects of the drought: (1) critical drought impacts, (2) communication and cooperation, (3) the role and responsibilities of the media, and (4) response to the drought of the general public and water …

The Effect Of Edge-Of-Field Nutrient Management Practices On Microbial Concentrations In Subsurface Drainage Water And The Associated Risk Of Antibiotic Resistance Dissemination, Sara Mardani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many in-field and edge-of-field management practices have been used to reduce nutrient loads from agricultural fields. The denitrification woodchip bioreactor (WB) is one edgeof- field management practice that has proven to be effective in removing nitrate from subsurface drainage water. The success in nitrate removal achieved with WBs has raised interest in expanding their capabilities for removing other agricultural pollutants, including phosphorus, by using other types of media like phosphorus-sorbing filters or combining these filters with woodchips to remove both nitrate and phosphorus as dual-nutrient removal systems. Despite the extensive research done on WBs and nutrient filter materials, little consideration …

Uas Flight Operations In Complex Terrain: Assessing The Agricultural Impact From Hurricane Maria In The Central Mountainous Region Of Puerto Rico, Kevin Adkins

Publications

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in September 2017 as a Category 4 storm causing major damage to infrastructure, agriculture and natural ecosystems, as well as the loss of many lives. Among the crops hardest hit was coffee, one of the most important crops in Puerto Rico. As a perennial system, coffee takes various production forms along a gradient from high shade/biodiversity coffee farms to low shade coffee monocultures and therefore offers an ideal means for the study of resistance and resilience of an agroecosystem to weather and climate disturbance. During the summer of 2018, 14 impacted farms across the production …

Comparison Of Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Uas) For Agriculture Monitoring, Joseph Cerreta, Kristine M. Kiernan

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Florida citrus growers need inexpensive methods to observe citrus plants to detect disease and stress consistently. Health vegetation indices, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) collected from Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), can be used to identify variation in plant health. Simple-to-operate UAS may enable growers to determine within-field variation more frequently than with inspections from scouts, providing more frequent knowledge about the crop condition. This research compared two low-cost fixed-wing UAS, a $5,000 Parrot Disco Pro Ag and a $16,690 senseFly eBee, each equipped with a Parrot Sequoia multispectral camera, to determine if there were differences in the …

Characterization Of Claypan Soils In Southeastern Kansas, M. A. Mathis Ii, S. E. Tucker-Kulesza, G. F. Sassenrath

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Reports

Soil erosion reduces topsoil depth. In areas with a claypan, removal of productive topsoil reduces crop yield where the claypan layer is near the surface. The topsoil and claypan layer each have unique characteristics that impact crop production and within-field variability. To better understand these differences, the soil from an area of low crop yield and high crop yield were collected and laboratory tests were performed to determine the soil classification and undrained shear strength. Understanding the soil properties and the interaction between the topsoil and claypan layers may aid in under­standing the process by which topsoil is being eroded.