Applications of G.I.S. in Agriculture and Ecology :: Agricultural Environment Farm Essays Papers

Applications of G.I.S. in Agriculture and EcologyGeographic Information Systems (G.I.S.) is one of the instant(prenominal) growing technologies today. This field covers allthing and everything that give the sack be mapped, anything from weeds to urban sprawl, if it can be mapped, G.I.S. can be utilize. G.I.S. uses computers to store, analyze, and show data collected just about a given topic(Kennedy 1), (Zimmerman 5-9, 73-91). G.I.S. basically turns a computer into an atlas(Kennedy 1). With all this entropy available, how can it help the field of agriculture? G.I.S. has been used to track the deal of noxious weeds, grasshoppers, soil types, and various other factors, which help in agriculture. setoff off, we can cover some G.I.S. basics. The learning that is put into G.I.S. is collected from out-of-door sensing, which can consist of gay photography, satellite imagery, or raw G.P.S. data. G.I.S. has devil main categories raster and vector(Johnston 1-77). Raster G.I.S. uses cells and numbers to represent real objects in the world(Johnston 1-77), (Zimmerman 5-9, 73-91). These cells are depute numerical values to represent objects in the real world. For example a sealed cell could be numbered 353, and could represent a swamp, mountain, river bed, or any other physical feature found on the earth, or any(prenominal) the G.I.S. is being applied to. Vector G.I.S. represents the world by using a series of lines, shapes, and points. This G.I.S. presents physical features, or whatever the G.I.S. applies to in realistic shapes(Zimmerman 5-9, 73-91). both(prenominal) of these types of G.I.S. would be applicable in agricultural systems, the vector type being more visual oriented and the raster looking more like a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet(Zimmerman 5-9, 73-91). It just depends on what you are studying, for example the terrain analysis for a new field would probably be best suited to a vector G.I.S., whereas a raster G.I.S. would be more applicable in next t he movement of grasshoppers across the state of Wyoming(Zimmerman 5-9, 73-91). G.I.S. applications are currently being used to track weed invasion in the Jack Morrow Hills area of Union Sweetwater County and southwestern Fremont County(Gillham 1-68). This is done through the remote sensing application of aerial photography. The mapping of weeds is very important to the agriculturist. They can use the information that has been collected to put forth preventative measures to keep out certain invasive species. This plays a huge role near the Jack Morrow Hills, the nearby communities of Farson and Eden both rely mainly on hay and alfalfa crops as a source of income, and with G.