Riassunto Il fitoplancton costituisce il principale produttore primario di materia organica in ma... more Riassunto Il fitoplancton costituisce il principale produttore primario di materia organica in mare e la concentrazione di clorofilla-a rappresenta un indice riconosciuto dell'abbondanza di biomassa fitoplanctonica, necessariamente correlata con il carbonio organico contenuto e prodotto ( ...
Abstract Recent investigations have supported the possibility of predicting soil water content (S... more Abstract Recent investigations have supported the possibility of predicting soil water content (SWC) through a simplified soil water balance (WB) model fed with remotely sensed actual evapotranspiration (ETa) estimates. This approach, however, requires information on main soil features (i.e. depth, wilting point, field capacity) which are generally difficult to retrieve over large regions. The current paper proposes an alternative model which directly predicts SWC relying on the same logic of the recently proposed ETa estimation method, i.e. the combination of meteorological and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) datasets. The theoretical bases of the old and new SWC estimation methods are first described. Both methods are then applied in Central Italy using ancillary and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI data having a spatial resolution of 250 m; the outputs obtained are assessed versus SWC measurements taken both continuously and instantaneously. In the former case three ecosystems are analyzed (i.e. the grassland of Amplero and the forests of Barbialla and Amiata), where SWC was measured by probes during three different years (2003, 2012 and 2018, respectively). The latter experiment concerns 362 sample sites where SWC gravimetric measurements were taken during a similar time span (2000–2018). In both cases SWC is first normalized into relative SWC (RSWC), which is more directly influential on vegetation conditions. The results of both experiments indicate that the two simulation methods perform similarly when the former is driven by adequate information on soil features. The main limitations of the two simulation approaches are due to the spatial resolution mismatch between SWC measurements and estimates, which has a relatively minor impact on the first three homogeneous areas but is decisive for the other sampled sites. In general, the new simulation method is capable of predicting RSWC with relatively high spatial and temporal resolution without the use of specific soil information.
I dati e le informazioni ambientali hanno notevole rilevanza per un gran numero di applicazioni e... more I dati e le informazioni ambientali hanno notevole rilevanza per un gran numero di applicazioni e servizi, ponendosi alla base di scelte programmatiche e strategiche di molti importanti settori economici. Il loro uso operativo, tuttavia, richiede la disponibilita di strumenti tecnologici avanzati e il rispetto di rigorose procedure, non sempre adeguatamente conosciute o pienamente rispettate dagli stessi operatori del settore. Le reti pubbliche e private che operano a vari livelli territoriali e ambientali seguono normalmente procedure specifiche, diversificate in base alle esigenze operative e funzionali, ma spesso non conformi agli standard riconosciuti dagli enti preposti. Questa situazione e in gran parte frutto di un atteggiamento autoreferenziale che vedeva nella gestione autonoma dei dati e delle informazioni un elemento di forza e di potere. Soltanto recentemente, una crescente consapevolezza ambientale e una maggiore attenzione verso gli strumenti di prevenzione delle catas...
This paper describes the architecture of a simple process-based model that simulates on a daily t... more This paper describes the architecture of a simple process-based model that simulates on a daily time step growth and development of an olive agroecosystem, including the olive tree and grass cover growth and their competition for water. The model includes a phenological sub-model simulating the sequence of olive tree vegetative and reproductive stages for determining changes in biomass allocation. Final yield is calculated at the end of growing season as a fraction of total olive tree biomass accumulation. To ensure a wide applicability of the model, calibration and validation were performed across different climates, soils, planting densities and management practices. The model was firstly calibrated against daily CO2 flux measurements obtained from an eddy covariance experimental station on a 3-year experiment, while additional sites across Tuscany region were selected to test the model effectiveness in simulating the most important plant and grass cover processes. The results pointed out that the model was able to faithfully reproduce olive tree transpiration, soil water balance total olive tree and grass cover biomass accumulation and final yield.
International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 2020
The availability of accurate information on the water consumed for crop irrigation is of vital im... more The availability of accurate information on the water consumed for crop irrigation is of vital importance to support compatible and sustainable environmental policies in arid and semi-arid regions. This has promoted several studies about the use of remote sensing data to monitor irrigated croplands, which are mostly based on statistical classification and/or regression techniques. The current paper proposes a new semi-empirical approach that relies on a water balance logic and does not require local tuning. The method stems from recent investigations which demonstrated the possibility of combining standard meteorological data and Sentinel-2 (S-2) Multi Spectral Instrument (MSI) NDVI images to estimate the actual evapotranspiration (ETa) of irrigated Mediterranean croplands. This ETa estimation method is adapted to drive a simplified site water balance which, for each 10-m S-2 MSI pixel, predicts the irrigation water (IW), i.e. the water which is consumed in addition to that naturally supplied by rainfall. The new method, fed with ground and satellite data from two years (2018-2019), is tested in a Mediterranean area around the town of Grosseto (Central Italy), that is covered by a particularly complex mosaic of rainfed and irrigated crops. The results obtained are first assessed qualitatively for some fields grown with known winter, spring and summer crops. Next, the IW estimates are evaluated quantitatively versus ground measurements taken over two irrigated fields, the first grown with processing tomato in 2018 and the second with early corn in 2019. Finally, the IW estimates are statistically analyzed against various datasets informative on local agricultural practices in the two years. All these analyses indicate that the proposed method is capable of predicting both the intensity and timing of the IW supply in the study area. The method, in fact, correctly identifies rainfed and irrigated crops and, in the latter case, accurately predicts the IW actually supplied. The results of the quantitative tests performed on tomato and corn show that over 50 % and 70 % of the measured IW variance is explained on daily and weekly bases, respectively, with corresponding mean bias errors below 0.3 mm/day and 2.0 mm/week. Similar indications are produced by the qualitative tests; reasonable IW estimates are obtained for all winter, springs and summer crops grown in the study area during 2018 and 2019.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
SCIRES-IT : SCIentific RESearch and Information Technology, 2020
Nowadays, several ongoing processes, ranging from climate change to alien pests spreading, make p... more Nowadays, several ongoing processes, ranging from climate change to alien pests spreading, make plants protection and green care more complex, forcing the adoption of stringent management rules and changing traditional operational frameworks. In Tuscany, green maintenance has become extremely challenging for municipal technical departments and private companies having the responsibility of High-Quality Urban Green Area Management (HQ-UGAM), characterized by different types of plants and services. The application of new technologies such IoT (Internet of Things), geomatics and automation, could provide concrete assistance for precision gardening, increasing the sustainability of the management practices. This paper describes the general structure and main components of GARANTES, a support system for green maintenance, oriented also to improve the analytical performance of decision-makers and stakeholders in site design and fieldwork programming.
Riassunto Il fitoplancton costituisce il principale produttore primario di materia organica in ma... more Riassunto Il fitoplancton costituisce il principale produttore primario di materia organica in mare e la concentrazione di clorofilla-a rappresenta un indice riconosciuto dell'abbondanza di biomassa fitoplanctonica, necessariamente correlata con il carbonio organico contenuto e prodotto ( ...
Abstract Recent investigations have supported the possibility of predicting soil water content (S... more Abstract Recent investigations have supported the possibility of predicting soil water content (SWC) through a simplified soil water balance (WB) model fed with remotely sensed actual evapotranspiration (ETa) estimates. This approach, however, requires information on main soil features (i.e. depth, wilting point, field capacity) which are generally difficult to retrieve over large regions. The current paper proposes an alternative model which directly predicts SWC relying on the same logic of the recently proposed ETa estimation method, i.e. the combination of meteorological and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) datasets. The theoretical bases of the old and new SWC estimation methods are first described. Both methods are then applied in Central Italy using ancillary and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) NDVI data having a spatial resolution of 250 m; the outputs obtained are assessed versus SWC measurements taken both continuously and instantaneously. In the former case three ecosystems are analyzed (i.e. the grassland of Amplero and the forests of Barbialla and Amiata), where SWC was measured by probes during three different years (2003, 2012 and 2018, respectively). The latter experiment concerns 362 sample sites where SWC gravimetric measurements were taken during a similar time span (2000–2018). In both cases SWC is first normalized into relative SWC (RSWC), which is more directly influential on vegetation conditions. The results of both experiments indicate that the two simulation methods perform similarly when the former is driven by adequate information on soil features. The main limitations of the two simulation approaches are due to the spatial resolution mismatch between SWC measurements and estimates, which has a relatively minor impact on the first three homogeneous areas but is decisive for the other sampled sites. In general, the new simulation method is capable of predicting RSWC with relatively high spatial and temporal resolution without the use of specific soil information.
I dati e le informazioni ambientali hanno notevole rilevanza per un gran numero di applicazioni e... more I dati e le informazioni ambientali hanno notevole rilevanza per un gran numero di applicazioni e servizi, ponendosi alla base di scelte programmatiche e strategiche di molti importanti settori economici. Il loro uso operativo, tuttavia, richiede la disponibilita di strumenti tecnologici avanzati e il rispetto di rigorose procedure, non sempre adeguatamente conosciute o pienamente rispettate dagli stessi operatori del settore. Le reti pubbliche e private che operano a vari livelli territoriali e ambientali seguono normalmente procedure specifiche, diversificate in base alle esigenze operative e funzionali, ma spesso non conformi agli standard riconosciuti dagli enti preposti. Questa situazione e in gran parte frutto di un atteggiamento autoreferenziale che vedeva nella gestione autonoma dei dati e delle informazioni un elemento di forza e di potere. Soltanto recentemente, una crescente consapevolezza ambientale e una maggiore attenzione verso gli strumenti di prevenzione delle catas...
This paper describes the architecture of a simple process-based model that simulates on a daily t... more This paper describes the architecture of a simple process-based model that simulates on a daily time step growth and development of an olive agroecosystem, including the olive tree and grass cover growth and their competition for water. The model includes a phenological sub-model simulating the sequence of olive tree vegetative and reproductive stages for determining changes in biomass allocation. Final yield is calculated at the end of growing season as a fraction of total olive tree biomass accumulation. To ensure a wide applicability of the model, calibration and validation were performed across different climates, soils, planting densities and management practices. The model was firstly calibrated against daily CO2 flux measurements obtained from an eddy covariance experimental station on a 3-year experiment, while additional sites across Tuscany region were selected to test the model effectiveness in simulating the most important plant and grass cover processes. The results pointed out that the model was able to faithfully reproduce olive tree transpiration, soil water balance total olive tree and grass cover biomass accumulation and final yield.
International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 2020
The availability of accurate information on the water consumed for crop irrigation is of vital im... more The availability of accurate information on the water consumed for crop irrigation is of vital importance to support compatible and sustainable environmental policies in arid and semi-arid regions. This has promoted several studies about the use of remote sensing data to monitor irrigated croplands, which are mostly based on statistical classification and/or regression techniques. The current paper proposes a new semi-empirical approach that relies on a water balance logic and does not require local tuning. The method stems from recent investigations which demonstrated the possibility of combining standard meteorological data and Sentinel-2 (S-2) Multi Spectral Instrument (MSI) NDVI images to estimate the actual evapotranspiration (ETa) of irrigated Mediterranean croplands. This ETa estimation method is adapted to drive a simplified site water balance which, for each 10-m S-2 MSI pixel, predicts the irrigation water (IW), i.e. the water which is consumed in addition to that naturally supplied by rainfall. The new method, fed with ground and satellite data from two years (2018-2019), is tested in a Mediterranean area around the town of Grosseto (Central Italy), that is covered by a particularly complex mosaic of rainfed and irrigated crops. The results obtained are first assessed qualitatively for some fields grown with known winter, spring and summer crops. Next, the IW estimates are evaluated quantitatively versus ground measurements taken over two irrigated fields, the first grown with processing tomato in 2018 and the second with early corn in 2019. Finally, the IW estimates are statistically analyzed against various datasets informative on local agricultural practices in the two years. All these analyses indicate that the proposed method is capable of predicting both the intensity and timing of the IW supply in the study area. The method, in fact, correctly identifies rainfed and irrigated crops and, in the latter case, accurately predicts the IW actually supplied. The results of the quantitative tests performed on tomato and corn show that over 50 % and 70 % of the measured IW variance is explained on daily and weekly bases, respectively, with corresponding mean bias errors below 0.3 mm/day and 2.0 mm/week. Similar indications are produced by the qualitative tests; reasonable IW estimates are obtained for all winter, springs and summer crops grown in the study area during 2018 and 2019.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
SCIRES-IT : SCIentific RESearch and Information Technology, 2020
Nowadays, several ongoing processes, ranging from climate change to alien pests spreading, make p... more Nowadays, several ongoing processes, ranging from climate change to alien pests spreading, make plants protection and green care more complex, forcing the adoption of stringent management rules and changing traditional operational frameworks. In Tuscany, green maintenance has become extremely challenging for municipal technical departments and private companies having the responsibility of High-Quality Urban Green Area Management (HQ-UGAM), characterized by different types of plants and services. The application of new technologies such IoT (Internet of Things), geomatics and automation, could provide concrete assistance for precision gardening, increasing the sustainability of the management practices. This paper describes the general structure and main components of GARANTES, a support system for green maintenance, oriented also to improve the analytical performance of decision-makers and stakeholders in site design and fieldwork programming.
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