EXAMPLE 1: AGRICULTURE
In this first section, we wanted to choose an example of Earth observations that were being used in the present to make big changes. Seeing as climate change has started severely affecting crops in areas around the world, we though exploring the positive effect of Earth observations on the domain could help better the future of the world.
INTRODUCTION
In this section, we will focus on two big examples of Earth observations being used to help inform decisions in the agricultural domain. First, we will focus on NASA's SMAP mission and the ESA's Landsat EO, helping farmers and other citizens from around the world predict and prepare for droughts. Next, we will focus on the ESA's RSACUP project, that deals with wasteland management in India.
USE 1: DROUGHT
How SMAP and Landsat EO help farmers predict and prepare for droughts.
What is SMAP?
In early 2015, NASA launched its revolutionary Soil Moisture Active Passive satellite, or SMAP for short. SMAP is an Earth satellite mission designed to measure and map Earth’s soil moisture and freeze/thaw state. Its underlying goal is to better understand terrestrial water, carbon and energy cycles. In essence, NASA’s SMAP is a large spinning instrument. It is approximately 6m in diameter and is made up of a gold plated wire mesh surface attached to a radiometer and spinning agent. The radiometer is a very sensitive receiver that accurately measures the radio frequency energy given off by the Earth’s surface. It works similarly to an infrared camera in measuring the temperature of Earth’s surfaces. The radiometer receives energy in a narrow microwave band (1.41GHz) that has been set aside internationally. Since the radiometer’s pulses can penetrate clouds, it is able to easily feed back reliable information to the satellite’s gold plated mesh antenna. Shortly said, this device measures energy reflections from Earth’s surface that can be used to analyze the moisture of the top 10 cm of the given soil. This information is then sent back to Earth to be further analyzed through SMAP’s rotating antenna. Since the antenna and radiometer rotate, it can accurately measure the soil moisture level of the entire Earth in a matter of 3 days. As such, it gives very precise and regular data on the conditions of Earth’s soils. Interestingly enough, based on research done by scientists from the China University of Geosciences in Beijing, SMAP’s data was found to be more reliable than the government’s Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2)’s data. It showed more agreement to locally tested results and was able to prove its reliability according to both spatial series analysis (how SMAP performed in different regions) and time series analysis (how SMAP performed over time).
But why measure soil moisture and temperature? How does this help farmers?
In agriculture, being able to accurately predict a year’s crop yield production is crucial for farmers, insurance companies and other organizations. It can impact trade markets and food supply. However, making such predictions can usually be quite challenging. One key feature that can help ease these predictions is the access of root-zone water for the plants. If the access is limited, biomass and yield will be reduced. In contrast, if the access is ample, plants can grow and produce high yields. Additionally, the root-zone moisture levels can also bring insight into the region’s future weather conditions. If a soil moisture measurement finds that a certain region is increasingly wet, a flood could occur in the near future. Equally, if a soil is found to be drier than usual, this might be an indication that a drought may be forecasted. The same applies for temperature. By measuring the temperature of near surface areas, scientists can predict and assess the weather conditions of areas and better warn local farmers or agencies of imminent problems.
As such, by measuring soil moisture levels, and by feeding this information to local scientists, NASA and other space agencies can help predict droughts and/or floods. Additionally, the easily renewed information given by both satellite missions means that predictions and forecasts can often be rethought and changed over the course of several weeks. This means that farmers will be receiving very precise and accurately sourced information. Having this information at hand, they can adapt their agricultural methods to prepare for floods or droughts. They can change their irrigation patterns, saving water when needed, changing the time of seed planting, planting them later, giving the plants the highest chance of survival. They can also alert government officials of impending events and prepare government funding for flood relief or additional resources in case of a drought. In turn, all these alterations can lead to climate smart and resilient agriculture and later even food secure future and reliable income for farmers. Luckily there exist multiple examples of SMAP and Landsat’s predicting droughts.
The South African Drought of 2017
In 2015, a giant swell of warm water, known as El Nino emerged in the Pacific Ocean. This swell of warm water alerted scientists of a possible change in weather patterns in the world, specifically in South Africa. Indeed, in 2017, two years later, Africa fell in one of its worst ever droughts. Here, 30 million people were at risk of drastic food shortages and 40% of the population did not have access to clean drinking water. But, luckily, SMAP allowed scientists to find a connection between Pacific Ocean temperatures and soil moistures in Africa. It noticed an anomaly in soil moisture data: low records of moisture in soil. As can be observed in the data, since January 2016, areas such as Botswana and Namibia have consistent soil moisture indexes of approximately -3, whereas normal conditions in Tanzania exhibited indexes close to 4. The same pattern is observed in the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) of the region, with Botswana transitioning from indexes of 0.10 to the opposite of -0.10 in January 2016. This data was then used to help predict the drought. According to the Foreign Agricultural Service, scientists then had the first reliable soil mixture data in 30 years for the region. In large, this data can also be fed into a USAID program called the Famine Warning Systems Network. This activity collaborates with international, regional and national partners to help give earny warnings on emerging and evolving food security issues. As such, SMAP’s data can be used to provide early warnings to several developing nations.
What are tangible effects of this mission?
The tangible effects of SMAP on the South African Drought of 2017 remain quite simple. Thanks to NASA’s data, 350 million dollars of emergency water and food aid were delivered. This aid was delivered even in the early stages of the drought. However, since SMAP was a “baby” mission at the time, not many were aware of its power and importance. As such, farmers did know how to access its data and no one knew if its results were entirely accurate. As such, SMAP was not able to alter agricultural methods in preparation for the drought. Yet, in the future, it can be said that while providing a steady feed of soil moisture and temperature data to local farmers, they can work to save hundreds of thousands of lives and better mitigate the risk of drought. Without SMAP, these farmers would have no way of preparing for droughts and would then suffer catastrophic consequences. Crops would die out, income would diminish, insurance companies would come knocking at doors, angered by the lack of reaction. Farmers would be put into helpless positions. It would be even worse for farmers in impoverished nations where the only thing they could do is pray on the crops and do their best to avoid famine. It is only by envisioning dire conditions like the previous one do we truly understand the immense benefit of Earth observations such as SMAP’s.
USE 2: DROUGHT MITIGATION WITH LANDSAT 8
How Landsat 8 helps manage water supply during shortages.
What is Landsat 8?
Similarly to SMAP, a mission launched by NASA and the USGS on February 11 2013 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, called Landsat 8 is also helping farmers deal with imminent droughts. This satellite mission carries two scientific instruments. The first is the OLI (Operational Land Imager) and the second is the TIRS (Thermal Infrared Sensor). Together, they provide seasonal coverage of the global landmass. This satellite helps image land and give accurate representations of the temperature and layout of different agricultural regions, whether it be farms or forests.
2008 Chilean Drought
Chile is a country that strongly relies on its agriculture. Unfortunately, the country often faces drought conditions and although having access to dams and reservoirs, it can rarely rely on stable water supply estimates. This means that each year, seasonal water supply is uncertain and yearly agricultural yield and economic growth are unstable. This is where Landsat 8 comes in. With its incredibly helpful land imaging technology, Landsat 8 is able to provide the Chilean government with estimates of seasonal water demand and different crop coefficients (found on the adjacent image) that help monitor the predicted behavior of crops. This information can thus help the nation to achieve optimal irrigation practices and manage its water budget and demand. These estimations bleed into other agricultural aspects, such as water management strategies for olive, apple and grape farms.
Landsat 8’s data has been available since 2008 and yet since 2005 over 500,000 acres of olive and apple orchards and vineyards have been surveyed. These surveys were then transferred to diverse facilities which were able to output sophisticated and refined regional and local estimates of consumptive water use. This data was then used to create meaningful water budgets for the entire nation. As such, when dryer periods emerged, the surveyed lands were able to adjust the application of water on each vineyard based on water requirements for a specific production outcome. Additionally, irrigation was delayed and much water was saved in the process. As such, the government was guaranteed a stable and predictable yield, no matter the circumstances, water was saved through differing irrigation methods and farmers were able to benefit from more steady incomes.
What are tangible effects of this mission?
The effects of Landsat 8’s involvement in Chile were immediately evident. Several of the country’s vineyards reported:
A 80$/acre cost savings in energy used for irrigation over 3,700 acres of olive orchards per year
A 30-60% reduction in the amount of water applied on grapevines
An increase in grape quality between 30-35%
All of these changes ultimately ended in the increase of farmers’ salaries. Thanks to the reduced cost of grape, apple and olive production and the increased rate of the quality of the aforementioned products, the price and cost margins of producers were able to spike dramatically. It is reported that for vine, these vineyards were able to benefit from a price increase of 1.00$ to 20.00$ per bottle.
USE 3: REMOTE SENSING FOR WASTE MANAGEMENT
How can we use Earth observations for waste management?
A final and rapid third use of Earth observations for agriculture is the use of the Remote Sensing Applications Centre in Uttar Pradesh to manage waste. Using this center and other imaging systems from Earth observations (such as the Copernicus Sentinel-5P), the Indian government was able to make use of wastelands with high severity. By observing these regions from space, it was much easier to identify ways of taming them and making use of them. Today, these areas are used to produce 2.6 tones of cereal per hectare and to increase family incomes by 50% for over 280,000 smallholder families.
IN CONCLUSION
Why use Earth observations for agriculture?
To conclude, it seems that all three examples simply prove the immense value of Earth observations on the international agricultural domain. We can see that by taking advantage of Earth observations farmers are either able to predict droughts and mitigate their risk, or take advantage of water shortages to increase the quality of their yield. With the abundance of data, farmers can propel their industries into more sustainable and reliable streams of income to feel safer in their field. It seems that even in a poetic way, the data provided from Earth observations almost transcends Mother Nature, helping farmers navigate their way over the hurdles thrown at them year after year. By simply taking advantage of Earth observations governments can too, save lives, save money, and save time, struggling to find solutions to ever present weather disasters. As such we ask farmers and other organizations the simple question, what are you waiting for? Take advantage of Earth observations and change your life for the better!