For better utilizing and reusing the agricultural information and knowledge,
powerful data centers and systems are expected to play a significant role in the
management of numerous agriculture-related geospatial data, which could be
derived or processed from satellite imagery, instrumental ground truth data, and
other sensor data. Web service technologies have shown great potential for scientists
to build the infrastructure for collaborative sharing of distributed resources, such as
data, models, and services. Web service usually defines standard interfaces to enable
the interoperation of different software systems; thus, it is widely used in geospatial
data systems development to fulfill the requirements of different organizations.
Currently, most of the agriculture-related data centers and systems can only
support two functionalities: data archiving and data distribution. Data archiving
provides the capability of long-term data preservation, while data distribution provides the capability of the Web interface for users to access and download the data.
Such data center or system usually lacks other steps like data analysis, data integration, or data mining, the agricultural scientist needs to accomplish them by themselves; this becomes a big issue when they are facing to the agriculture application
studies. In the agriculture-related geospatial field, massive data downloading,
processing, mining, analyzing, and dissemination are very computation-intensive
and time-consuming. The agricultural data volume is expanding to the petabyte
level; the complexity of the data is also continually increasing. All these situations
lead to challenges for near-real-time data discovery, access, and analysis.
The purpose of this chapter is to review state of the art of the operational
agriculture monitoring systems at international, national, and regional levels, as
well as to discuss their capabilities in making data and functions publicly available
when providing sustainable support for the continual monitoring of agriculture. The
user needs and the issues of current agricultural data systems are discussed. The
capabilities of spatial and temporal monitoring systems are analyzed. Emphatically,
the data sources and products, system functionalities, interoperability, and standardization are demonstrated.
12.2 Related Work
In recent years, valuable agricultural geospatial data and information are broadly
used in many research areas, ranging from agricultural sustainability, to food
security, to natural resource monitoring and disaster assessment, etc. For better
accessing, visualizing, and analyzing the original geospatial data, as well as making
appropriate decisions for benefit-related agencies, our human society needs
on-demand agricultural geospatial data and information systems at global, national,
or regional levels, which could provide near-real-time response and support to
natural disasters, food market, food security, and economic prosperity.
Natural hazards usually result in tremendous environmental and social consequences for agriculture. Especially, agricultural drought and flood are supposed to be
the major natural disasters because of the characteristics of frequent recurrences and
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powerful data centers and systems are expected to play a significant role in the
management of numerous agriculture-related geospatial data, which could be
derived or processed from satellite imagery, instrumental ground truth data, and
other sensor data. Web service technologies have shown great potential for scientists
to build the infrastructure for collaborative sharing of distributed resources, such as
data, models, and services. Web service usually defines standard interfaces to enable
the interoperation of different software systems; thus, it is widely used in geospatial
data systems development to fulfill the requirements of different organizations.
Currently, most of the agriculture-related data centers and systems can only
support two functionalities: data archiving and data distribution. Data archiving
provides the capability of long-term data preservation, while data distribution provides the capability of the Web interface for users to access and download the data.
Such data center or system usually lacks other steps like data analysis, data integration, or data mining, the agricultural scientist needs to accomplish them by themselves; this becomes a big issue when they are facing to the agriculture application
studies. In the agriculture-related geospatial field, massive data downloading,
processing, mining, analyzing, and dissemination are very computation-intensive
and time-consuming. The agricultural data volume is expanding to the petabyte
level; the complexity of the data is also continually increasing. All these situations
lead to challenges for near-real-time data discovery, access, and analysis.
The purpose of this chapter is to review state of the art of the operational
agriculture monitoring systems at international, national, and regional levels, as
well as to discuss their capabilities in making data and functions publicly available
when providing sustainable support for the continual monitoring of agriculture. The
user needs and the issues of current agricultural data systems are discussed. The
capabilities of spatial and temporal monitoring systems are analyzed. Emphatically,
the data sources and products, system functionalities, interoperability, and standardization are demonstrated.
12.2 Related Work
In recent years, valuable agricultural geospatial data and information are broadly
used in many research areas, ranging from agricultural sustainability, to food
security, to natural resource monitoring and disaster assessment, etc. For better
accessing, visualizing, and analyzing the original geospatial data, as well as making
appropriate decisions for benefit-related agencies, our human society needs
on-demand agricultural geospatial data and information systems at global, national,
or regional levels, which could provide near-real-time response and support to
natural disasters, food market, food security, and economic prosperity.
Natural hazards usually result in tremendous environmental and social consequences for agriculture. Especially, agricultural drought and flood are supposed to be
the major natural disasters because of the characteristics of frequent recurrences and
222
L. Hu and P. Yue