Professional Standards and Principles for Evaluations

Abstract

Geospatial science, a genetic term that includes Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), Geographical Information System (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS), are playing essential roles in food security through using Precision Agriculture (PA) technologies. For instance, real-time kinematic GPS positioning, as an enabling positioning technology for PA, has already delivered net benefits that meet both food security and sustainability criteria. However, recent investigation reveals that the current PA adoption rate is very low. Even in the developed countries such as in the UK the average PA adoption rate is around 10%. In developing countries such as China, PA has the greatest potential to feed its largest population. This paper starts with a brief overview of the recent GNSS development and is followed by the analysis of the GNSS roles in PA. A trial using Network Real-time Kinematic (NRTK) GNSS positioning for auto-steering a John Deere 8345R tractor was carried out to assess the NRTK performance for PA. To address the pervasive issues of a low GNSS adoption for PA, a low-cost high precision positioning GPS platform that was jointly developed between the University of Nottingham and the Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping under ICUK scheme is introduced. The overall performance of this device is assessed and the preliminary results are presented in the paper. Recommendations, conclusions and future work are included in the final section.