1. Kansas
Minnesota
Germany
Activities and Recommendations of the GEO TASK AG Community of Practice
Bolivia
Thailand
Brazil
Image: NASA, ASTER Science Team

2. Outline Task definition Ag monitoring system components Current Status
Subtasks
Ag monitoring system components
Current Status
Workshop recommendations
Future EO systems/data continuity
Data Integration
Data Standards/Quality
Data Policy/Dissemination

3. GEOSS AG Task
The purpose of this Task is to support the development and improvement of Operational Agricultural Monitoring Systems, enhancing the current capabilities in the areas of agricultural monitoring, famine early warning and food security

4. Ag Sub-Tasks
Enhancements will be developed in the following three areas:
Global mapping and monitoring of changes in distribution of cropland area and the associated cropping systems
Global monitoring of agricultural production leading to accurate and timely reporting of national agricultural statistics and accurate forecasting of shortfalls in crop production and food supply and facilitating reduction of risk and increased productivity at a range of scales
Effective early warning of famine, enabling a timely mobilization of an international response in food aid
The Work Program is being developed under the following five sub tasks:
A Community of Practice Workshop on Crop Acreage Estimation.
Development of coordinated regional experiments on methods inter-comparison and accuracy assessment for enhanced cropland area and crop type mapping and monitoring.
Selected pilot studies integrating EO data within national statistical reporting systems leading to documentation of community guidelines and protocols.
Mapping of croplands at 250m on an annual basis.
Global mapping of agricultural areas at 30m and development of an associated cropping systems data base, undertaken at 5 year intervals for 2005 and 2010.
Coordination and implementation of regional capacity building workshops on EO, Agricultural Monitoring and Famine Early Warning.

5. Agricultural Monitoring System Functional Components
1. mapping and monitoring of changes in agricultural type and distribution
2. global monitoring of agricultural production, facilitating reduction of risk and increased productivity at a range of scales;
3. accurate and timely national agricultural statistical reporting;
4. accurate forecasting of shortfalls in crop production and food supply;
effective early warning of famine, enabling a timely mobilization of an international response in food aid
reliable and broadly accepted 5, 10, and 20 year projections of food demand and supply as a function of changing demographics, markets, agricultural practices and climate.

6. Ag Monitoring System of Systems
Satellite
Observations
Satellite
Observations
Raises the Underlying Issue of Data Policy
- GEOSS Rules of Play
Satellite
Observations
Satellite
Products
Satellite
Products
Meteo
Data
Internet
Data and System
Interoperability
Standards
Socio
Econ Data v
Issues
Are there a core set of products?
Can the data be shared?
- Between the Community of Practice
- Openly with all
Timeliness of Availability
National
Monitoring
Systems
International Monitoring
Systems
International Monitoring
Systems

7. Assessed Current Status
Currently a number of operational agricultural monitoring systems exist at national, regional and global scales that utilize satellite observations, in-situ data and field survey
these operate independently w. some common data use
Pressing need to:
Ensure continuity of the EO data that these systems rely on
Enhance the timeliness and resolution of data
Better assimilate between the different EO data products as well as integrate the EO and in situ data
Identify a standard set of products to be used for agriculture monitoring
Set standards for both in situ and EO data products, collection procedures, metadata, and product accuracy
Work toward an international data policy agreement that includes free and open access to data sets and products

8. GEOSS/IGOL Agricultural Monitoring Workshop July 2007,FAO
IGOL/GEO workshop was convened to develop a strategy for global agricultural monitoring in the framework of GEO
47 participants representing 25 national and international organizations attended and established the ‘GEOSS/IGOL Agricultural Monitoring Community of Practice
Reviewed the current state of agricultural monitoring and developed a set of priorities and recommendations

9. Ag-07-03 Community of Practice Data Related Recommendations to GEO and its Members:
Future EO Systems/Data Continuity:
GEO Secretariat/Architecture and Data Committee to advocate for CEOS, its member space agencies and working groups to secure the space-borne assets needed for agricultural monitoring with an emphasis on data continuity, reliability and timeliness by working to:
secure operational status for fine resolution sensing systems (10m-50m) extending the 35 years of dynamic data continuity from Landsat and SPOT
Develop and implement within the next 5 to 10 years the next generation of fine resolution sensing systems, to provide an integrated system, acquiring and providing global coverage of 10m cloud free imagery every 5-10 days
Put in place systems to provide moderate resolution data (1km-250m) delivery in near real time or at a minimum within 24 hours of acquisition

10. Future EO Systems/Data Continuity Recommendations Cont.
Expand operational space programs to ensure continuity of morning and afternoon polar orbiters and the associated validated data products used for agricultural monitoring (e.g. Surface reflectance, Vegetation Indices, Crop Type)
Overlap between consecutive missions is required for data continuity and cross calibration
Redundancy between missions is desirable to ensure data continuity
Demonstrate and exploit the capability of a global geostationary network of sensors for agricultural monitoring
increased spatial resolution of these systems to 500m to increase utility for agriculture
Secure operational status for radar altimetry data, and improving these data’s spatial resolution, targeting and height accuracy
Demonstrate and exploit the capability of data from microwave and thermal sensors for agricultural monitoring and their combination with data from optical sensors

11. Data Integration Recommendations
The GEO Secretariat/ADC to support:
The Agriculture Community of Practice to advance research and development activities for assimilating satellite earth observations and in situ data
The FAO and its member national agricultural agencies to facilitate the integration of satellite data with traditional agricultural monitoring methods to achieve timely accurate and verifiable reporting of national agriculture statistics
The WMO and its member agencies to improve the availability of meteorological station data and resultant products to enable improved prediction and monitoring of crop conditions and production shortfalls
Development of an international fine resolution data initiative, providing a global data set for the period, from the available international assets.
This data set to be derived from multiple data sources would follow the GEOCOVER and MDGLS projects (to be completed by USGS and NASA in 2008) and be used as a basis for developing a database on global agricultural distribution, crop type and rotation and farming systems.
The data set should be made available free of charge
It is recommended that CEOS WGISS/ADC provide guidance on the necessary acquisition strategy, metadata standards and product interoperability and availability

12. Data Standards/Quality Recommendations
Coordinate with CEOS WGISS for moderate resolution data exchange protocols and metadata standards
Coordinate a moderate resolution acquisition strategy
Facilitate a Global Agricultural Data coordination workshop to address timeliness, availability, quality, and exchange of satellite and in situ data
Enhance the quality and availability of in situ data to improve timeliness, accuracy and comprehensiveness of data
Facilitate setting standards for agriculture related in situ data collection procedures, national agricultural statistics reporting, and data accuracy

13. Data Policy and Dissemination Recommendations
GEO Secretariat/ADC to work toward an international agreement on and implementation of a data policy that includes free and open access to data sets and products contributed by GEO members’ space agencies toward meeting the objectives of the GEO societal benefit areas such as global agricultural monitoring. The Policy should:
establish non-prohibitive data pricing policies, allowing for free and open sharing of data and enabling affordable regional agricultural monitoring within the next 3 years
Adopt equitable pricing policies for moderate resolution data leading to free and open data access and data sharing
Encourage a reduction in price of very fine resolution (1m-10m) data especially for targeting agricultural lands in regions where food security is a priority issue
Help minimize delays in data access, foster wide spatial and temporal data availability of data, promote data sharing and collaboration, and enable integration of earth observations and in situ data
The GEO Secretariat/ADC should work with the Ag Community of Practice to review existing data policies, identify barriers to data use for agricultural production monitoring, and develop data product recommendations that maximize access for agricultural production monitoring.
Special Attention should be given to enhancing the capacity of developing country data users and collectors