Influence de l'état d'ameublissement et de la rugosité du sol des parcelles agricoles sur l'exactitude de l'altitude des points de contrôle positionnés au GPS

Abstract

Agricultural soil tilth and roughness impact on the exactness of ground control points elevation surveyed by GPS. Our goal in this study is to estimate through ranges of variation, the impact of agricultural parcels soil's tilth and roughness, due to cultivation techniques, on the exactness of ground control points elevation surveyed by RTK (Real Time Kinematic) GPS (Global Positioning System). So, 16 point's elevations which were located each 100 mm on a transect have been surveyed first by using a Total Station (TS), and then a RTK GPS in 2 parcels (3 transects per parcel). Cultivation techniques on those parcels were different. The parcel 1 was tilled, and the soil of parcel 2 was prepared for cereal cropping. Then, the analysis of variance has been applied on the differences of TS and RTK GPS elevations data to estimate the confidence interval of ground control points elevation due to soil tilth, whereas the times series statistical method has been applied on elevation data to estimate the confidence interval due to soil roughness. The confidence intervals of points elevation are estimated being [51 mm; 57 mm], [-4 mm; 4 mm] for parcel 1, and [97 mm; 113 mm], [-35 mm; 23 mm], for parcel 2. Results show that ground control point's elevations exactness is influenced by soil tilth and soil roughness. In conclusion, we can admit that soil tilth and soil roughness have significant impact on the exactness of ground control points located on agricultural parcels. This impact must be considered in Digital Elevation Model (DEM) errors evaluation of agricultural watershed.

Keywords

• Agricultural soils
• tillage
• global positioning systems
• surveying
• altitude
• site factors
• soil structure
• mathematical models