A GIS-Based Approach for Manure-Spreading Monitoring within the Digital Agricultural Framework

Abstract

Livestock manure management, especially related to soil-fertilisation practice, is responsible for most of the emissions in agriculture, and in particular the ammonia emissions (NH3), which play a key role in environmental problems, affecting water, soil and air quality. Within the digital agricultural framework, EO data contribute to agricultural-practices monitoring such as manure spreading, to mitigate pollutant emissions. This study presents a GIS-based tool on an open-source platform, developed for susceptibility estimation of sewage spreading occurrence in agricultural areas of Italy. The tool is based on the analysis of multispectral and hyperspectral satellite time series in synergy with field data and ancillary information collected from regional repositories, to produce a series of classified and prioritised spatially explicit information. Spectral analysis of satellite acquisitions enabled the identification of manure spreading with the precision of about 83%. Field campaigns from October to March were carried out to validate the spreading event. The case study demonstrates the ability of the proposed GIS-based tool in supporting the monitoring of manure spreading.

Keywords

• agricultural practices
• soil fertilisation
• monitoring manure spreading
• GIS-based tool