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Contributions to the decision support systems for the evaluation and use of agricultural land

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Virgil Vlad at Academia de Stiinte Agricole si Silvice "Gheorghe Ionescu-Sisesti"
Virgil Vlad
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New PhD Thesis 1
Contributions to the decision support systems for the evaluation and use
of the agricultural land
Virgil Vlad,
Research Institute for Soil Science and Agrochemistry - ICPA Bucharest,
Bd. Marasti - 61, 71331 Bucharest, Romania.
Supervisor: Prof. dr. Andrei Canarache,
University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine - Bucharest, Romania
The main goal of the PhD research has been to analyse and develop concepts and models for
land evaluation and land management and to integrate them into a computer tool for assisting
the decision-makers. In this respect, a hybrid approach of system analysis and design was
used: top-down approach combined with bottom-up approach.
Firstly, the domain of land evaluation was analysed, using a large volume of existing
literature published in different countries, including Germany, USA, UK, The Netherlands,
Belgium, France, Italy and others. This has permitted a systemic structuring of the domain by
developing a coherent system (framework) of universally applicable concepts: generalising
the terms of "land suitability", "land use", "land-use system" and others, a comprehensive
classification system of land evaluation, correlation between land evaluation types, types of
evaluation criteria, types of land suitability, measurement types of land suitability, land
evaluation methods and their classification and applicability and others. For land evaluation
several classifications are used: kind of evaluation (physical, economic, social and
sustainability evaluation), evaluation factors (natural, current/actual and conditional
evaluation), precision of evaluation (qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative
evaluation), land units details (reconnaissance, semi-detailed, detailed and very detailed
evaluation), land use details (general, specific summary, specific intermediate and specific
detailed evaluation) and evaluation purpose (current and special evaluation). A land
evaluation method is characterised by (1) the set of primary data used, (2) the set of
evaluation criteria and land suitabilities used and (3) the evaluation models used for
determining the evaluation criteria and land suitabilities. Three criteria are used for the
classification of the land evaluation methods: method generality (frameworks/methodologies,
general methods and complete methods), method precision (qualitative, semi-quantitative and
quantitative evaluation) and evaluation techniques (interpretation of soil/agroclimatic surveys,
land performance estimation based on statistic observations, limitations based methods -
maximum limitation and multiple limitations, methods based on heuristic combinations,
parametric methods - additive, multiplicative and based on other mathematic functions,
methods based on mechanistic/simulation models, methods based on multi-objectives multi-
criteria decisions, special methods and hybrid methods). Using the concepts developed in this
research, 45 of the main existing land evaluation methods are briefly characterised.
The second part of the thesis analyses the land management problems: land use planning
(strategic and tactical decisions), technological management of land (operational decisions for
land use technology application, design of the land improving/amelioration works,
environmental impact, etc.) and land legislation application (taxation, exchange/compensation
value of the land, land leasing, bank loans, etc.). The concepts of the decision theory are
applied to land management as a decision process and some important characteristics of the
1 ESSC Newsletter, 2001, no.3, p.13-15
land management problems are revealed: data uncertainty, knowledge uncertainty, uncertainty
in decision process, multicriterial character of decisions, overall complexity of the land
management problems. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the land management
problems are poor-structured problems and, consequently, a special class of information
technology applications - the decision support systems - must assist them. Based on the
analysis done, the main functional, operational and implementation requirements for the
decision support systems for the agricultural land management are established. Related to
these requirements, the existing computer tools for land management are briefly characterised,
revealing their missing functions as decision support systems.
In the third part of the thesis the conception of a decision support system for the agricultural
land management in Romanian conditions - named "DexTer" - developed by the author is
presented. The system is structured in three conceptual subsystems: communication (user
interface) subsystem, knowledge (models base and data bases) subsystem and problem
solving (decision process model) subsystem. Of these components, the focus is directed to the
models base. A set of land uses taken into consideration (crops and their technologies types)
is established and the main requested land evaluation models are chosen (and some of them
improved or new-developed): land productivity (parametric multiplicative, additive and
hybrid methods and crop yield simulation models), land capability, land
improving/amelioration capability/requirements, soil tillage recommendations, soil
fertilisation and liming recommendations, site assessment, economic, social and sustainability
evaluation criteria estimation, evaluation of the land having perennial vegetation, evaluation
of the compound land units and compound land uses, evaluation of the variability of the land
use outputs and cadastral evaluation. Two types of land use planning models (merging of the
parcels of an owner, crop planning at farm level) and the model of the land management
decision process are generally presented. The main database of the decision support system is
the database of the agricultural qualitative cadastre, which must provide the data necessary for
the main public and private land ownership requirements in Romania. The main models that
answer to these requirements are identified and, related to them, the detailed set of data (land
characteristics) to be contained by the database is established: fourteen tables of data and their
relations are completely defined and 81 (pedo-)transfer functions for calculation or estimation
of 63 land parameters are identified.
Finally, a nucleus of the decision support system "DexTer", implemented on PC's by the
author, together with the main conclusions resulted from its application in some pilot zones
are presented.
... A land capability classification at national level for 455 areas extracted from the map of pedo-climatic microzoning at a scale of 1:1.000.000 (Florea et al., 1999) was created using the BDUTS software by Vlad (2001). The results of various studies draw the attention upon the decrease of land productivity due to climatic changes and the increased surface of degraded land in spite of an increase in the number of inhabitants and thus of necessity (Behzad et al., 2009;Yasmina et al., 2001;Henok, 2010;Păcurar et al., 2013). ...
Land Capability Classification for Crop and Fruit Product Assessment Using GIS Technology. Case Study: The Niraj River Basin (Transylvania Depression, Romania)
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2015
The efficient capitalisation of agricultural land is dependent on determining the environmental suitability of the area and on identifying the most appropriate culture types for a particular terrain. Because of its complex landforms, the anthropic pressure and the irrational use of land on large surfaces, the Basin of Niraj River was the object of a reorganising process in the production activities, by emphasising the agricultural land use as a resource for sustainable development, which has been too long underexploited. The technique of capability classification, in collaboration with the GIS techniques of spatial analysis, represents one of the most facile and concrete ways of identifying and creating an inventory of lands which fulfil the best conditions for the creation of orchards, through the use of specific indicators: climatic, morphometric, morphologic, pedologic. The present study created a new GIS model of spatial analysis, which could offer a new approach to the classical method of land capability classification. The identification of the areas which are suitable for fruit tree cultivation was based on this model by integrating the specific indicators into databases and GIS spatial analysis equations. The results of this study highlights the maps of the land favorability for apple trees, pear trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach trees and apricot trees and a geodatabase materialization in the maps of quality classes for orchards.
View
... A land capability classification at national level for 455 areas extracted from the map of pedo-climatic microzoning at a scale of 1:1.000.000 (Florea et al., 1999) was created using the BDUTS software by Vlad (2001). The results of various studies draw the attention upon the decrease of land productivity due to climatic changes and the increased surface of degraded land in spite of an increase in the number of inhabitants and thus of necessity (Behzad et al., 2009;Yasmina et al., 2001;Henok, 2010;Păcurar et al., 2013). ...
View
... A land capability classification at national level for 455 areas extracted from the map of pedo-climatic microzoning at a scale of 1:1.000.000 (Florea et al., 1999) was created using the BDUTS software by Vlad (2001). The results of various studies draw the attention upon the decrease of land productivity due to climatic changes and the increased surface of degraded land in spite of an increase in the number of inhabitants and thus of necessity (Behzad et al., 2009;Yasmina et al., 2001;Henok, 2010;Păcurar et al., 2013). ...
Land Capability Classification for Crop and Fruit Product Assessment Using GIS Technology. Case Study: The Niraj River Basin (Transylvania Depression, Romania)
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2015
The efficient capitalisation of agricultural land is dependent on determining the environmental suitability of the area and on identifying the most appropriate culture types for a particular terrain. Because of its complex landforms, the anthropic pressure and the irrational use of land on large surfaces, the Basin of Niraj River was the object of a reorganising process in the production activities, by emphasising the agricultural land use as a resource for sustainable development, which has been too long underexploited. The technique of capability classification, in collaboration with the GIS techniques of spatial analysis, represents one of the most facile and concrete ways of identifying and creating an inventory of lands which fulfil the best conditions for the creation of orchards, through the use of specific indicators: climatic, morphometric, morphologic, pedologic. The present study created a new GIS model of spatial analysis, which could offer a new approach to the classical method of land capability classification. The identification of the areas which are suitable for fruit tree cultivation was based on this model by integrating the specific indicators into databases and GIS spatial analysis equations. The results of this study highlights the maps of the land favorability for apple trees, pear trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach trees and apricot trees and a geodatabase materialization in the maps of quality classes for orchards.
View
... The growth and development of sunflower – particularly the passing from a developmental stage to other and the honey potential yield – are determined by an important number of complex factors and their complex interrelations. This makes the prognosis task to be a so-called " poor-structured problem " (characterised by complexity, incompleteness, uncertainties, fuzzy parameters etc.) and, consequently, it can be solved most advantageously by a computerized tool of " decision support system " type, which does not automatically yield solutions, but these are obtained by involving and under the control of user (Vlad, 2001). In the same time, a main requirement imposed to the prognosis system was easiness in use by farmers, i.e. the system was to request few and relatively easily obtained data, and also relatively not advanced knowledge for it use. ...
Researches regarding the prognosis of the flowering stage and honey potential yield of sunflower crops
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2008
The objective of this research was to develop a prognosis support system that provides users with predictions of the dates of the beginning and end of flowering stage and the honey potential yield of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) crops. It is emphasized that this prognosis is a "poor-structured" problem and it can be solved most advantageously by a tool of "decision support system" type. The prognosis method of the flowering stage is based on "thermal time" (TT) measured in "growing degree-days". The model of calculation of the daily biologically active temperature for TT summations uses a "base temperature" of 6.7 °C and a correction of the average daily temperature. Three TT thresholds are defined: (1) sowing – emergence, (2) emergence – beginning of flowering, and (3) beginning – end of flowering. These TT thresholds and the honey potential yield – the prognosis parameters – are specific to hybrids, maturity class of hybrids (four classes) and to climatic types of crop years (four types). The (re-) calibration of the prognosis parameters is performed by averaging the sunflower crops historical data that are accumulated during system use (in that way a "self-improving" system is obtained). Four estimation methods of different accuracies are used. The prognosis of meteorological data is performed based on the historical data of the years of the given climatic type estimated by user for the prognosis year. The prognoses of the flowering stage and honey potential yield are based on the calibrated parameters, estimated meteorological data for the prognosis year, and sowing data specified by user.
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