We are progressing well with the TerraClim project, and major milestone in the efficiency and accuracy of interpolations.The regional interpolation analysis divided the Western Cape study area into smaller regions using the local terrain and climatic characteristics of that particular region. The regionalisation of temperature interpolation showed improved accuracy of spatial interpolations by up [...]
by Atman Prins The second experiment used the methods developed for the first experiment to perform a five-class classification. The five classes consisted of maize, cotton, groundnuts, orchards and non-agriculture. Sentinel-2 and aerial imagery data were added to the analysis and were compared to LiDAR data. The LiDAR data was obtained from a 2016 [...]
This video is a flyover showing the results of a satellite image (WorldView-2 dated 15 March 2020) analysis of a citrus orchard draped over the Digital Elevation Model of South Africa at 2m resolution (DEMSA2). The analysis was carried out for agricultural research and innovation business CITRII. The automated analysis developed by [...]
Wynland has released part three of Winetech's flagship project, TerraClim, being undertaken by the CGA. For many wine grape producers in South Africa, access to accurate and detailed climate and GIS data is limited. Terraclim is funded by Winetech and is an online spatial decision-support system specifically [...]
This is a dense point cloud of a vineyard created with drone imagery with 4 bands (green, red ,red edge and near infrared). The imagery is displayed in false colour using the green , red and red edge bands. The dense point cloud was created using Agisoft Metashape and can be exported as a digital [...]
Prof Adriaan van Niekerk and Jascha Muller of the Centre for Geographical Analysis (CGA), and Dr Abraham Singels of the South African Sugarcane Research Institute (SASRI), have published their collaborative research assessing the use of multispectral remote sensing to determine fractional absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (fAPAR) in sugarcane. Crop growth models regularly use fAPAR as [...]
By Lauren McCarthy Wildfires occur globally, destroying thousands of hectares of vegetation, affecting ecosystems, the environment, and humans. Fire spread models, based on fire behaviour algorithms, have been developed in different regions to aid researchers in better understanding fires and fire-management teams in fighting the fires and making important decisions. One such model is [...]
Air temperature varies across the Earth and as such it can be represented as temperature surface (map). Temperature surfaces provide critical information for applications relating to climate change adaptation and agricultural planning and management. The generation of temperature surfaces usually involves interpolating temperature measurements taken at weather stations. Although the weather stations [...]
The drought in South Africa in recent years has forced farmers to change their watering habits and use water more efficiently, resulting in crops being irrigated less frequently. This can lead to the accumulation of salts in soils, which can have a detrimental effect on production. In the article Getting Ahead Of Salinization, [...]
On the 7th of August, the CGA and the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies were visited by Mr Mfanafuthi Gama of the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development and Land Reform. He presented on the new National Spatial Planning Data Repository (NSPDR) which is being developed by his department. The NSPDR will [...]