Aerial and satellite data and their derived products are extensively used in environmental and agricultural management. In the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), farmers can apply for compensatory payments for certain arable crops. The control of these subsidies with remote sensing programs, using both satellite images as aerial photographs, is the largest civilian application of remote sensing in Europe. For already a decade, EUROSENSE is participating in the agricultural control of these European subsidies.
With the CAP-reform the control of declared area and land use remains but the Farmers will now also have to respect environmental, food safety and animal welfare standards to keep all farmland in good agricultural and environmental condition. Farmers who fail to do this will face reductions in their direct payments (a condition known as ‘cross-compliance’). Control of cross-compliance by remote sensing (satellites) can be situated in the land practices, good agri-environmental conditions and good farming practices.
Besides control, remote sensing can also contribute to agricultural applications like: risk analysis, statistics, monitoring, farm advisory systems (FAS) and field visit preparations.
Examples are:
- Farmers can be assisted in their good agricultural practices (a requisite in the Cross Compliance Measures of the EU).
- Control of good tillage practices (parallel to contour lines) --> see example on the right.
- Monitoring
of landscape features (e.g. individual trees, tree rows & hedges)
can be achieved by a semi-automatic approach developed by EUROSENSE. --> see animation below.
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See also the Success Story of the agricultural-based project SAGACAP executed by EUROSENSE on the website of the European Space Agency: http://www.eomd.esa.int/stories/story270.asp