Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Thomas Schauer
Peter Lanz
Matthias Feilhauer
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Contents
5. Literature 52
This survey was conducted in the course of the ICT-ENSURE project (http://www.ict-ensure.eu). ICT-ENSURE is
financed under the grant agreement number 224017 of the European Commission’s seventh framework programme,
Theme 3, Information and Communication Technologies.
* Remark of the ICT-ENSURE Project Consortium: Information about national research programmes, organisations, research
institutions and experts contacts has been collected, but is not displayed in this public version of the survey. Some of the information
will be available on the research programmes information system.
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1. Scope, Definition and Analysis of the Key Area
ICT for Agriculture and Biodiversity
For analysing the scope of the themes, the presence of the key concepts in the public domain was
assessed by an analysis of search results. The two terms "sustainable development" (SD) and
"information technology" (IT) were combined either with "biodiversity" (B) or "agriculture" (A).
The surprising result was the large representation of agriculture on the web, there were even more
hits for agriculture by Google than for the term information technology. Also, the overlap between
agriculture and information technology was larger than the overlap between agriculture and
sustainable development.
The overlap of all three entities "sustainable development", "information technology" and
"agriculture" (marked as "o") was 450,000 hits.
Schematic representation of Google search results, mapped as of Oct. 15th, 2008. The maps of the search results give
an approximate overview of the results (the sizes of the circles represent approximately, but not exactly the search
results, also the overlaps are represented relatively larger than in a proportional representation).
With biodiversity, the situation looks different. Biodiversity is less prominent on the web compared
to agriculture, and it is closer to sustainable development (larger overlap) than to information
technology.
Finally, the overlap of all 4 terms was checked, and revealed 92,500 hits.
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Definitions and Terminology
Definition of Agriculture
The definition of the term "agriculture" was quite straightforward in this context. Agriculture is seen
as a sector of the economy which deals with the cultivation of crops and the raising of animal
organisms for food and other uses.
Definition of Biodiversity
These are not necessarily in line with each other. There are very valuable ecosystems which are in
the process of disappearing, but which have a low representation of species biodiversity (for
example upland moors).
Information technology is defined as an electronic tool which acquires, stores, processes and/or
disseminates information. The terms "information and communication technology" and
"information technology" are used in a synonymous way, even though there is reason to use "and
communication". However, there is no agreed-upon list which distinguishes "information
technologies" from "information and communication technologies".
Sustainable development is a more difficult entity to define. The Brundtland Commission defined it
as follows:
"Sustainable development is a development in which present generations find ways to satisfy their
needs without compromising the chances of future generations to satisfy their needs."
It has become a widely used term today. It is very difficult to find websites which are opposed to the
idea of sustainable development. This is amazing. The term seems to have become a universal
consensus. But this is true only at first sight - a closer investigation reveals that there are many
contradictory interpretations and that some dissent about a sustainable path to the future is hidden in
this diversity. For classification, the sustainability interpretations can be sorted along an axis of
anthropocentricity (see Schauer 2003):
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“Pure Ecologist” Interpretations
The maintenance of natural resources and the minimisation of human influence are demanded by
the “pure ecologist” interpretation. Nature is regarded to have a right of its own to exist. This
definition corresponds to the understanding of indigenous Americans who apologise for cutting a
tree or killing an animal before doing it.
There is still a focus on the preservation of nature but a stronger emphasis is put on the role of
nature as a “resource providing institution for humans”. Human development has to proceed within
the limits that nature sets.
In this type of interpretation, the close connection to ecology is relaxed and the concerns about
social and ecological problems are treated equally. Generally, two spheres are distinguished: The
natural sphere and the human sphere. Human development has to remain within defined natural and
social crash barriers.
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“3D” Interpretations
Industry, generally, prefers the pillar concept which states that sustainable development is based on
ecological, social and economic sustainability and that these pillars (or dimensions) have equal
importance and have to respect each other.
“4D” Interpretations
In some interpretations, promoted, for example, by the Information Society Forum of the EU, an
additional dimension, the cultural dimension, was introduced. This can be regarded as the most
anthropocentric interpretation described so far.
The more anthropocentric an interpretation becomes, integrating more and more dimensions and
relativising the importance of the ecological one, the more a societal discourse about possible
transition paths to sustainable development becomes necessary, because more and more normative
questions have to be addressed. Defining sustainability is not an easy task for social, economic and
cultural sustainability, where individual values play a significant role. However, while societal
discourses in the social and cultural area can lead to progress, they can have potentially disastrous
consequences in the ecological area. Our ecosystems are not negotiable and nature does not conduct
consensus talks.
The "Three Pillars" or "Three Dimensions" concept is the most frequently used. Therefore, in this
study, the context of the "environmental sustainability" is seen as one of three pillars (or
dimensions) of sustainability.
Fields of Research, Tasks and Priorities in the Area ICT for Agriculture and
Biodiversity
This specialized software helps the farmers to manage their enterprise. It substitutes paperwork and
provides fast access also to environmentally relevant information.
GPS Farming
Agro Robotics
This area focuses on autonomous systems which perform a large variety of tasks in fields, but also
in livestock management and post-harvest processing.
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Sensor Technologies
These technologies form the basis for the agriculture of the 21st century. Many applications (such as
picking of fruits) will need efficient and fast interaction between advanced sensors and machines.
Further studies revealed, that these are crude categories, which help to provide an overview but they
cannot be separated strictly. This does not only apply to sensor technologies, which interact
intensively with farm management software, but also to the other areas. They depend on another
and mutually enforce each other. For example, robots can be equipped with GPS systems, and farm
management software can process information which is provided by GPS farming devices.
Information technology in agriculture is part of a complex system in which the components cannot
be considered to be separate technologies any more.
ICT is increasingly used in biodiversity monitoring, even though a lot of monitoring is still being
done as field work without ICT support - in those cases, the data have to be transferred later to
electronic media.
Biodiversity Data Processing is the intermediate step between monitoring and public or restricted
presentation to the public or to experts.
Biodiversity Networking
There are quite a few networking initiatives in this area; networking is therefore more prominent in
the biodiversity area than in the agricultural one.
The processing of data followed by their presentation in an attractive way are today at the core of
the work of many institutions which are active in this field.
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Main Problems
Even though the areas of ICT for agriculture and ICT for Biodiversity are thematically different, the
problems faced in daily work are largely similar. They are related mainly to the applicability of
technologies for the user groups. Another area of problems is the mismatch between present funding
schemes and the needs of a large number of bottom-up initiatives. Some of the problems are just
related to access to technology, others are caused by behavioural patterns of users, but, it is
important to take them into account when working on ICT systems.
► User involvement and user acceptance of new technologies are not easy going. Even though
farmers, for example, are principally positive about innovation, this does not mean that all useful
innovation will be automatically established. The same applies in biodiversity monitoring where
field workers have high cmompetence in biodiversity but not always in specialized IT
applications.
► Meta data and knowledge management systems are not sufficiently developed.
► There are funding problems for smaller research and development activities. Most programmes
prefer larger projects in order to reduce administrative work for the sponsoring institution.
► There are funding problems for longer-term and continuous activities. If calls for proposals
exclude the follow-up or continuation of existing activities, the long-term impact of successful
project might be reduced that way.
► NGOs are sometimes de facto excluded from EU politics by language or bureaucracy obstacles.
Small NGOs have very restricted lobbying capacity on EU level.
► Online activities are not always successful activities. Motivation to participate in online forums
is sometimes low.
► There are sometimes very different levels of access to computer technology (some countries
face problems with Internet access in rural areas).
► Scientists are not automatically interested to share their data because of competition related to
publications.
► Language and translation problems still make part of the information on the web inaccessible for
groups without the appropriate language knowledge (for example a wealth of information
available on the Chinese web is hardly accessible for European readers).
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2. Relevance of Agriculture and Biodiversity Conservation for
Sustainable Development and the Impact of ICT
Agriculture is today one of the large contributors to the emission of greenhouse gases, and already
in the past, changes of land use due to agricultural practices can be interpreted as the cause of
changes in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations.
We have to consider both direct emissions from agriculture and emissions from associated industrial
branches, such as the production of synthetic fertiliser. Greenpeace has provided an estimation of
the emissions caused directly and indirectly by agriculture (Greenpeace 2008). According to their
data, agriculture contributes up to 17-32% of the greenhouse gas emissions (there is a large
uncertainty). 10-12% are created by direct methane and nitrous oxide emissions, 0.6-1.2% by
fertiliser production and contribution, 0.2-0.8% by farm operations and 6-17% by land conversion
to agriculture.
Greenpeace stated that the magnitude and relative importance of the different sources and emissions
vary widely between regions. Globally, agricultural methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O)
emissions have increased by 17% between 1990 and 2005, and are projected to increase by another
35 – 60% by 2030, driven by growing nitrogen fertiliser use and increased livestock production.
Even though the industrialisation of agriculture has increased the emissions, the situation might be
less easy to assess in some areas such as livestock production. The management and influencing of
the emissions by animals might be easier and more successfully controlled with conventional
production than with small-scale organic farming. And whereas ethical considerations support the
latter, considerations of an efficient use of land area might suggest that intensive farms provide a
better balance and make it possible that land is still used for other purposes.
The impact of organic farming versus conventional farming regarding emissions has not been
studied in an extensive manner and results seem to differ from one product to the other. Sometimes,
plants cultivated through organic farming (like potatoes, oil seeds) caused less emissions, whereas
milk, eggs and poultry, produced also through organic farming, were not more efficient regarding
greenhouse gas emissions (Greenpeace 2008).
Obviously, we do not know enough even about the environmental impact of the industrial
revolution in agriculture. We know even less about the impact of the ICT revolution. But facing
climate change, this might be crucial for humankind in the decades ahead. Will information
technology increase efficiency, leading to more environmentally friendly agriculture, or will
technologies lead to more (energy) intensive farming?
Agrobots could help to reverse another very harmful trend in agriculture. In the past, every
generation of agricultural machines became larger and heavier than the previous one. Soil
compaction is today one of the most severe problems in conventional agriculture. The air cavities in
the soil are necessary for water storage, in order to have better growth of roots etc. Today, the
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machines have around 65 tons, double the weight compared to the '60s (Schmundt 2008). The
driving factor of this development was the basic restriction of agricultural machines: There had to
be one farmer per machine. In the future, it will be possible, that groups of devices with much less
weight will work autonomously in the fields, and therefore reduce the problem of soil compaction.
Frequently, the three dimensions of sustainability are treated as if they could be equally weighed.
This assumption is misleading. Humankind has always survived economic disasters and even social
ones (industrialisation was a social disaster in its first years) could be managed. However: The
ecological system is the entity upon which all human activities depend upon - and biodiversity is an
essential part of the ecological system.
Natural systems and biodiversity are providing humankind with the services it needs to survive. But
many of these services are in decline. Fisheries, fresh water, food supply - humankind is facing
threats everywhere.
The reduction of biodiversity will further destabilize ecosystems and make them more vulnerable,
which will reduce in turn their capacity to contribute to human well-being.
Generally, the human metabolism is not interacting positively with the ecosphere. The climate does
not change only due to carbon dioxide. Globalisation, without sufficient precautionary measures,
has led to increasing problems with invasive species.
Therefore, any activity which supports the maintenance of biological diversity - with or without the
application of information technology - is highly relevant for sustainable development.
Information technology can support biodiversity in a wide range of fields. Among them are sensors
and tools for tracking species, as well as data processing application and information tools for
networking of initiatives.
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C) Cross-Cutting Aspects
Information technology applications in the fields of agriculture and of biodiversity monitoring and
conservation have much in common, however there are some aspects that differ:
In the area of ICT and agriculture, the main task of many researchers is the increase of the
efficiency of agricultural production. ICT proves to be an excellent tool for this purpose. Its relation
to sustainability is given by the fact that a more efficient agricultural sector, which uses less
resources, has a bigger positive impact on sustainable development. Nevertheless, the priority of
efficiency for ICT in agriculture is only indirectly related to sustainability. Directly relevant sectors,
such as environmental information in agriculture, web portals for organic farming, exist of course,
and can also be seen as ICT applications for SD, however the main focus of most ICT applications
in agriculture is in the area of efficiency gains.
In the area of ICT applications for biodiversity monitoring and maintenance, the relation between
technology applications and the purpose of achieving sustainable development is closer, since
biodiversity is an essential aspect of sustainable development.
These chains - and the difference between them - will be important when analysing the limitations
of the application of ICT for sustainability in the areas of agriculture and biodiversity. The
limitations are generated by possible interruptions of the causal chains - and these interruptions can
look different. The corresponding problems will be outlined in Chapter 4.
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3. State of the Art - Detailed Analysis
Relevance of ICT
Small things can be big challenges: Many plants are grown already in
pots in the fields. Keeping these pots in order and (re) arranging them One of the models
is a labour-intensive task. A small system which could arrange this
at the competition
work is being developed and might be on the market in 2010
(Lombardi 2010).
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John Deere has developed a prototype of a more sophisticated device, walking on six legs. This
machine would be suitable for a more „chirurgical“ woodcutting. However, the machine was not
offered as a product on the market.
GPS Farming
GPS Farming is getting more and more efficient and sophisticated. As a new term for more
comprehensive systems, "GIMS" (Global Information and Management Systems) is widely used.
The term "precision farming" is also used in this context.
Without a GPS based autopilot, farmers do an overlap of approximately half a meter in order to be
sure that fertilizer and biocides reach out to everywhere. With an automatic system, 5 cm are
sufficient. This results, on large fields, in savings of approximately 10% of fuel and working time.
In addition, less fertilizer and biocides are needed (Röver 2006).
The Galileo system envisages similar features as GPS farming. There could be three main
applications of the system in agriculture:
► Chemical spraying: Galileo will make precise aircraft positioning possible. That way, fertilizers,
herbicides and insecticides can be applied just in those areas where they are needed. By linking a
Galileo receiver onto spraying vehicles, it is possible to generate maps of the spraying activities.
► Crop Yield Monitoring: Galileo positioning receivers could be applied on harvesters and thus
provide real-time assessment of yealds, maps which could later be visualized again.
► Crop acreage and livestock tracking: Managing and controlling agricultural subsidies will be
possible by Galileo, because the actual crop area can be easily detected. Also, transponders
which are linked to a central database would improve the monitoring and controlling of livestock
production.
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Sensor Systems
However, the intelligent device also needs the intelligent user. There are different possibilities why
the chlorophyllum content in plant is reduced (lack of some other chemical compounds) and if the
farmer does not consider this, he might take the wrong measure when increasing the nitrogen
supply.
Sensors are getting more and more precise, more and more commercially available at affordable
prices. They are used in order to assess a wide range of physical and chemical properties in
agriculture. The challenge is to develop non-invasive sensor technologies which can be applied
easily in the fields. Any additional handling which may be necessary in situ or even ex situ
increases the time needed for the measurement and makes the fast processing of data difficult as is
demonstrated by the example of detection of plant diseases (Gröll 2008).
- Thermographic measurements:
The measurement of the surface temperature of the leaves of plants can provide information about
the health of the organism. Thermographic measurements can be transformed into "false colour
images" and processed digitally. The temperature difference between the leaves and the
surroundings of the leaves depends on factors such as metabolic activity and the evaporation of
water. This temperature pattern changes when plants are subject to stress.
- Fluorescence measurements:
Fluorescence (induced by incoming visible light) changes when plants are subject to stress, and can
therefore also indicate pests. However, although this method has been conveniently applied in labs,
its application has proven to be more difficult outside, due to the measurement equipment needed.
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- Reflectance measurements:
Under experimental conditions, it has been possible to detect powdery mildew on wheat via the
reflection in the visible light area of the spectrum.
Sensor Networking
An example from Finland demonstrates how the commercial availability of sensors is a prerequisite
and further inspires the experimental application in agriculture. A team from Finland could easily
enter the new research domain and start an experiment for measuring parameters in a greenhouse
via a system of sensors which were linked together to form a Wireless Sensor Network (Ahonen
2008). The group could enter the field of agriculture, originating from computer science. Entering
new disciplines is not a frequent phenomenon in highly categorized scientific surroundings, but it
might provide interesting and innovative results.
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Information Technology in Post-Harvest Processing
IT application is even more advanced in the area of post-harvest processing. In this case, problems
like ground and landscape irregularities do not play a role. Even though the post-harvest processing
still differs from the production of industrial goods, because plants have a large variability, the
situation is "easier" than for the field robots.
The enterprise El Dulce in the region Murcia is applying an automation system of 68 robots in order
to process salads. Presently, 400,000 pieces are processed daily, the maximum capacity is half a
million. Sensors detect the weight and size of the salads. An image processing system localizes the
root, a robot (produced by FANUC) picks the salads and places them on a cutting machine which
removes the roots. Then, they are registered once again via a digital image processing system and
moved to a packaging station. The need for staff has been reduced from 500 to 100 by help of the
system (Wickham 2008).
Post harvest processing offers a wide field of information technology applications, and there is also
fast progress in the preparatory work like management of small plants, handling and cutting plants
and related robotics applications.
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Full Automation of Agriculture
GrowTECH™2500
In Israel, research on the fully automatic crop production is on the way. The company OrganiTech
announces the equipment to produce vegetables at any place: "The Company's leading product to
date is the GrowTECH™2500, an automated platform using GrowTECH™2000 proprietary
technology and know-how, and combining it within a greenhouse controlled environment. The
GrowTECH™2500 enables the growth of leafy vegetables in a highly economical clean and
automated surrounding, making optimal use of resources such as water, energy, labor and land. By
integrating OrganiTECH Ltd.'s hydroponics Rotating Field-System (RFS) technology in
GrowTECH™2500, vegetables (i.e. lettuce) float in Styrofoam trays on water tables, which serve as
a nutritious solution and a means of transport through the growth process. By automating the
seedling and harvesting process, the GrowTECH™2500 enables utilizing the land to the maximum,
and increasing produce about 5-6 times more than conventional greenhouse yields".
Plants are growing in boxes on a water solution; the composition of the solution is controlled by
specific software.
There are many other automation systems for greenhouses. GrowTECH is cited here, because it has
a focus on the full automatization of an agriculture which can be practiced without depending on the
local geographical and climatic surroundings. Lior Hessel, founder of the company stated:
"Moreover, this unique transfer is founded in the design of our technologies, which are applicable to
virtually any process involving plants and the exploitation of their biological systems. And since our
closed environmentally friendly platforms require only basic utilities and a small water source, our
technologies are transferable to virtually any location throughout the world, thereby solving the
costly and time-sensitive challenge of distribution." (http://www.organitech.com)
However, automation needs energy, and greenhouses at location with difficult surroundings need
even more energy. Not surprisingly, the international symposium on high technology in the
greenhouse system (http://www.greensys2009.com/) is dealing with energy and environment,
sustainability, design and management of greenhouses, substrate and hydroponics, controlled
environment agriculture including space cultivation.
Full automation of plant production in "isolated" systems has two potential future applications. One
of them could be plant production in locations like deserts where there is sufficient solar energy
available from which the energy to run (heat/cool/maintain) the greenhouse could be generated. If
also water (from desalination) were available, this could open the door for a new high tech
agriculture.
The second aspect (farther away) is the idea to produce food during longer space missions. Work
has started at NASA on a Plant Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus (PGBA): "The ability to grow
plants in space will have an enormous impact on the success of future interplanetary space
exploration: " Any long-term human presence on the Moon or Mars will require sustainable plant
growth, which can provide a renewable food supply for explorers and assist with the maintenance of
breathable air." (www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/PGBA.html)
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Vertical Farming
Person-Assisting Systems
European farmers are subject to demographic change as well as the whole European population. But
aging has a specific importance for the farmers and farm workers. They still depend largely on
physical fitness and strength - especially in "unusual" situations, for example, when engines do not
work, when there are problems with livestock, etc.
Here, a comparison with Japan is interesting. In contrast to (Western) Europe which "solved" the
problem of care for old people by partly illegal staff from Eastern Europe, Japan started with ICT
and robotics application in the care sector.
It is possible that Japan will also invest in the area of ICT based support tools for aging farmers.
Today, more than 70% of the Japanese full time farmers are older than 60 years. They are working
on small fields in the mountains which are not suitable for the use of heavy machines (Steffen
2008).
The Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology has developed an agriculture robot suit
designed specifically to help out with tough agricultural work like pulling radishes: "The suit has
eight motors fitted over the shoulders, elbows, back and knees to provide a power boost to the
wearer. The current model weighs a hefty 25 kilograms, but developers hope to halve the weight
and have it on the market in two years, retailing for between 500,000 and 1 million yen" (Manichi
Daily News 2009). The suit can be programmed to support various types of movements.
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Milking Robots
Milking Robots combine several ICT applications. There is the hardware and software for the
identification of the individual cows, which are recognized via chips which are placed at their ears.
Then, image recognition is getting active, via optical sensors, the teats are recognized and the robot
arm is placed adequately. During milking, it is not only the quantity of the milk that is being
assessed. The farmer being absent, the system checks also the quality of the milk and immediately
discards milk which does not have sufficient quality (for example because the cow is sick).
Estimates calculate that such a system saves around 50% of the time for the farmer (Fenske 2008).
There are different systems on the market which differ both with respect to the technical details and
with respect to the way how the cows are handled. There are systems in which the animals are being
moved through a system of gates by the farmer, and there are systems which leave the decisions up
to the cows, such as the LELY milking robot shown in the picture above.
Database Integration
Database integration has a growing importance in the sector of information technologies and
agriculture. Not only new data are being collected with an increasing frequency and speed, there is
also a lot of "historical" data to be related to new measurements. The Adaptable Platform
Independent Information System (APIIS) is providing an open source solution for this purpose,
specialized to process databases from the animal breeding sector (Duchev 2007).
Climate change is a big challenge for future agriculture. In most countries, the selection of crops has
been determined by soil, landscape structure, availability of water and (micro or regional) climate.
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If one of these factors changed significantly, the complex system could be simply shifted to another
place where the same temperature exists as at the previous one. Relocation of crops is a complex
decision process which can be assisted by information technology. Work is especially important in
warm regions, where some crops might face limitations if the temperature increases further, for
example in Hungary (Bella 2007).
A special motivation to start research on the possibilities for food tracking was caused by the BSE
scandal which drastically reduced consumers confidence and created demand for product tracking
systems. Today, one of the most promising technologies in this area is based on RFIDs.
Concept of the integrated traceability system for agricultural products to record and store data on the production and
distribution processes, based on RFID + network technology (Sugihara 2007).
Trials show that systems can easily be made operative (Sugihara 2007). Systems are designed with
a product recording database and a distribution record database. The system was tested successfully
in the vegetables retail system in Japan.
It can be expected that, while the market for organic (bio-) products is expanding, there will be
more irregularities unveiled. A scandal in the bio-sector could lead to a drastic decrease of consumer
trust in this market segment.
By RFID technology, it would be possible to link the consumer directly to the producer, so that the
consumer could easily check where the products come from. Combined with further technology
such as the webcam, the contact between consumer and producer could even be intensified.
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Networking
Training
The Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation did a study in 2007 in which the
existing farming software was screened. Only software originating from Australian producers was
taken into account (Resing 2007).
The survey resulted in the description of more than 675 software products currently used by
Australia’s primary producers. Produced by over 200 Australian software developers, the
agricultural software industry was recognized as an untapped goldmine of agricultural technology
solutions and a potential export industry in itself. Quite a number of the software is related to
resource efficiency / increasing sustainability.
In Austria, the Landwirtschaftskammer offers a small selection of farming software on its website
( www.agrar-net.at/netautor/napro4/appl/na_professional/parse.php?id=2500%2C%2C1303373%2C ). The
software is mainly from Austrian and German providers. They have an economic focus and help
with administration rather than focusing on environmental or sustainability aspects.
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Meta-Meta-Meta Data ?!
It would be difficult to estimate the workload for farmers to find the optimal software for their
business. But it is obvious that the key to information society in this area is knowledge management
and metadata provision. Even the task to find an adequate listing or database for agricultural
software is not easy.
A market economy, however, depends largely on the transparancy of markets. Prices are formed in
an equilibrium between demand and supply. Of course, transparency is never 100%. In the software
sector, the situation is however relatively far from being transparent. Both the consumers (in this
case farmers) and the producers suffer from this situation. Farmers have difficulties to find the
software they need and producers have to make large investments in marketing.
The study did not cite Source Forge as an option for software, and "open source" was not a key
topic in the study. Research seemed to have a focus on proprietary systems.
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Online European Environmental Education
It has a strong relation to the agricultural sector. Among the 300 projects involved, 50 are dealing
with the thematic areas of agriculture and gardening.
There are many reasons for the importance of the educational sector related to sustainable
development: for example, the principal opinion shapers for the forthcoming generation and,
consequently, those capable of bringing about a change of awareness within the population at large
are teachers and professors. And on the other hand, the young generation has an influence on the
generation of parents, for example, when they remind them to separate waste.
But how to reach the target groups? Information should flow easily in the Internet Age; we are
flooded every day with bits and bytes. However, finding useful information is not easy. Therefore
the European Support Centre started the "European Environmental Information" (EEE) based on the
idea of a network. The EEE initiative aims at the increase of awareness for our major environmental
problems by fostering the exchange of ideas on environmental education. An online database has
been created that presents information from almost all European countries.
The website makes it possible to include environmental education projects in a database and to sort
them automatically according to various criteria:
► the thematic focus of the initiative, such as agriculture, gardening, water, energy, ...
► the age of the target group - children, teens and adults;
► the country of origin.
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B) Biodiversity - Application of ICT
The position tracking of animals allows wildlife biologists, scientific researchers or conservation
agencies to better understand their behaviour, feeding strategies, breeding and adaptation to their
environment. To determine the positon for a wild animal, GPS is used in combination with data-
retrieval technologies like mobile data telephony (e.g General Packet Radio Service - GPRS) or
satellite uplink systems (e.g. the Agro-System).
The device is attached to the animal and records position data at pre-determined intervals. The data
is stored in an integrated memory or sent by embedded cellular, radio, or satellite modem to a
remote computer. The data can be analysed in near-real time by a GIS software (e.g. for the viewing
of a map). Besides the position data, there can be determined by sensors: the temperature,
physiological data (including muscular activity and related metabolic details) and geolocation data
(light sensors that allow the estimation of day length and time).
Date Time TTF Lat Long Sv's Alt DOP Temp X.Y. 2D/3D
2006- 14:30 20 N E 6 74 3,1 24 5,12 3D
02-20 59.6014 15.1987
2833 5167
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Software example: GPS-enabled collar configuration software.
(Image: Televilt Sweden, http://www.positioning.televilt.se )
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DNA Barcoding Technology
DNA Barcoding is used to correlate an organism's DNA to a particular species. Because of the
digital format of the barcode databases, the identification can be done automatically. This can
improve the monitoring, knowledge and control.
The Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) is an online workbench that aids collection, manage-
ment, analysis, and use of DNA barcodes (see BOLD, http://www.barcodinglife.org). The number
of species with assigned barcodes is ca. 50,000 ).
The system provides a repository for barcode records, storing specimen data and images as well as
sequences and trace files. It provides also an identification engine based on the current barcode
library.
It is possible to apply for an account at the BOLD system. The registered user is able to add
projects, to manage data and to do a basic data analysis. Public users are able to view the DNA
barcodes from all projects. It is possible to download DNA sequences and traces as plain text file,
data spreadsheets and specimen labels as XLS file.
For the sequence analysis, the BOLD system offers the following features: Taxon ID Tree, Distance
Summary, Sequence Composition, Nearest Neighbour Summary, Specimen Age vs. Seq Length.
Web programming languages like JAVA are used to show recurrent data (e.g. automatic image
creation for DNA sequence) or interactive viewable data (e.g. for the sequencing run picture).
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Additionally a map with the location of collected species data and an image library are available.
Databases play an important role in maintaining biodiversity. There are now approaches which go
beyond the concept of isolated databases, and which integrate several web-technologies.
Ispecies (http://ispecies.org) is an
example. At Ispecies, there is a
"word cloud" associated with the
search page. The user can easily
get an overview of the most
frequently used terms. Via a
counter, the user can also learn
how many queries were made on
the same day.
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Databases with Advanced Search Forms
28
Meta-Search Engines in the Biodiversity Area
The goal of the speciesLink network (http://splink.cria.org.br ) is to integrate species and specimen
data available in natural history museums, herbaria and culture collections, making it openly and
freely available on the Internet. Tools are being developed to help interoperability, integration,
visualization, and data cleaning, etc.
The website speciesLink offers the possibility to select different collections and networks for a
search term. Additionally, it is possible to filter the included collections via drop-down menu
(collection type, collection location, network, data-source). For the output of the search results the
user can also choose the content and the format (HTML, XML, EXCEL).
The results are shown in a long table with a comprehensive set of columns: Institution, Collection
Catalog, Scientific, Basis of record, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species,
Subspecies, Scientific name author, Identified by, Year identified, Month identified, Day identified,
Type status, Collector number, Field number, Collector, Year collected, Month collected, Day
collected, Time continent or ocean, Country, State province, County, Locality, Longitude,
Latitude, Coordinate precision, Long county, Lat county, Error max(mt), Minimum elevation,
Maximum elevation, Minimum depth, Maximum depth, Sex, Preparation type individual count,
Previous catalog, number, Relationship type, Related catalog, item, Notes and Date last modified.
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Cached Meta-Search: EVOLTREE's e-lab
Using CMS has become common practice in many biodiversity related initiatives. User
management makes content editable from everywhere and for everyone who is authorized and who
has a minimum of technical capacities. Popular CMS systems are Drupal, Wordpress, Joomla and
TYPO3.
To share information and news with other websites and users (subscribers) RSS and Atom-Feeds are
used. These Feeds are short introductions with a link to the full text.
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Large Scale Mapping of Forest Ecosystems
ISS (Intensive Study Sites) are "large scale ecosystem areas where trees and selected associated
species are mapped, genotyped and phenotyped".
The main goal is to "improve accessibility to a broad variety of data and metadata about study sites
from different scales and from multidisciplinary sources".
EVOLTREE ISS is aiming to facilitate the access to datasets, to preserve the knowledge of existing
datasets, to enhance understanding of the benefits of geographic information.
(Source: EVOLTREE ISS, http://www.evoltree.eu/)
Technically, the system is set up with two databases. One of them, the PMN database, stores data
about organisations which involve volunteers in biodiversity monitoring. The second database,
called DaEuMon, concentrates on the methods which are applied for monitoring and the coverage
of the monitoring initiatives. Entries via the website update both databases. A tool called BioMat is
used for processing data from the databases.
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Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN)
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is one of the best known and most valuable list of
species available. Actually, the list started already in the pre-Internet age and was already then a
major success.
The list follows today the status of an overwhelming large number of species across an increasing
number of taxonomic groups. The information of the Red List is saved in a centralized database, via
a search function, information is available for everybody free of charge via the Internet.
Advanced Search in the Red List. One of seven search criteria. (Image: IUCN, http://www.iucnredlist.org, )
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ICT Applications in Agricultural Biodiversity
In agricultural biodiversity, principally the same technologies are applied, or could be applied, as in
biodiversity monitoring, or in agriculture.
Beyond these overlaps, there is, however, one aspect which has a specific importance in this area:
Work in agrobiodiversity conservation is largely done by smaller initiatives and by networks.
Information technology has increased the potential for regional and international networking and
has therefore contributed to the success of these initiatives.
Examples are the SAVE Foundation located in Germany, and the Arche Noah in Austria.
► Arche Noah ( http://www.arche-noah.at ) is the most successful network on rare plant cultivars in
the German speaking area. The initiative does not only maintain a large garden with the plants in
Schiltern, Austria, it has also decentralized the maintenance of the rare cultivars in a large network.
This was started offline with a handbook “Sortenfinder“. People who were engaged in the
maintenance of one or more rare cultivars sent a description of the cultivars and information about
available seeds and were listed in the book.
Today, the book still exists, however the information is more conveniently available via a database
accessible on the website of the initiative.
► The European Support Centre of the Club of Rome in Vienna has become engaged in the study
of agrobiodiversity in Georgia (http://www.clubofrome.at/varieties). It is rather a smaller scale
activity which benefits significantly from ICT, both for project collaboration and communication to
the outside.
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C) Cross Cutting Aspects
Even though the IT applications in the areas of agriculture and biodiversity conservation look
different at first sight, there are common features which would principally make a flow of
information fruitful for both sides.
► Sensors: In both areas, there is a high demand for precise monitoring and adequate sensor tools.
Detection of moisture on fields and detection of moisture in biotopes are of course similar tasks.
► Tracking tools: Some technologies are suitable for applications in both areas. Examples are
RFID chips, which can be used to track agricultural products in the post-harvest process, but
which can also be applied for tracking wildlife organisms such as insects.
Santana (2007) concludes with regards to modelling activities in the area of biodiversity and
precision agriculture: "Biodiversity modelling systems and precision agriculture information
systems are more related than one might expect beforehand. This suggests that they might have
similar architectures, and might also benefit from the reuse of components, and from sharing steps
and resources of the system development process. Also when looking for improvements in a
solution in one domain one could start by the analysis of the other domain".
Consequently, the requirements are similar and the architectural solution can be related, even if the
algorithms and implementations in the service layer may be completely different.
Santana also discusses the problem of transfer of insight and knowledge between the areas as there
are many proprietary systems and proposes the OpenModeller surroundings as a potentially
common platform. (see also http://openmodeller.sourceforge.net/)
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Analysis of Framework Conditions, Flow of Information
Open access to technologies is a crucial aspect of the further delevopment of the European Research
agenda. Here, there are two conflicting aims: On the one hand, the European Union has a high
interest to transfer European innovation and creativity to competitive products on the international
market. This requires an efficient protection of intellectual rights. On the other hand, further
progress and the application of creativity leading to further innovation requires affordable access to
the state-of the art technologies.
In some cases, software is offered for download with a reduced range of functionalities or capacity.
An example is Free TNTlite (a GIS related software) by Microimages (www.microimages.com), a
free version for small-scale projects. It is not the functionality which is reduced in this case, but the
size of the projects which can be processed. Even though such initiatives have components of a free
flow of information, they also serve for the purpose to make, for example, students familiar with
certain tools and products.
There are initiatives to provide open access to information on ICT in agriculture, such as The
Journal of Information Technology in Agriculture (http://www.jitag.org/about/about.htm) by
INFITA (International Network for Informational Technology in Agriculture). Even though there
are only two editions so far, the initiative deserves mentioning.
► agriculture: 12
► biodiversity: 14
► forestry: 2
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There exist however Open Souce Tools which might be applied both in agriculture and in
biodiversity monitoring and information processing:
GRASS
GRASS is a Geographic Information System (GIS) used for geospatial data management and
analysis, image processing, graphics/maps production, spatial modeling, and visualization. GRASS
is currently used in academic and commercial settings around the world, as well as by many
governmental agencies and environmental consulting companies. GRASS is an official project of
the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (http://www.osgeo.org/).
http://grass.osgeo.org/
Deegree
Deegree is an Java API (Application Programming Interface) for Geographic Informations Systems
(GIS).
http://www.deegree.org/
MapServer
MapServer is a popular Open Source project. Its purpose is to display dynamic spatial maps over
the Internet. Some of its major features include:
► support for display and querying of hundreds of raster, vector, and database formats,
► the ability to run on various operating systems (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, etc.),
► support for popular scripting languages and development environments,
► on-the-fly projections,
► high quality rendering,
► fully customizable application output,
► many ready-to-use Open Source application environments.
http://mapserver.org/
GeoServer
GeoServer is an Open Source software server written in Java that allows users to share and edit
geospatial data. Designed for interoperability, it publishes data from any major spatial data source
using open standards.
http://geoserver.org/
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PostGIS
PostGIS adds support for geographic objects to the PostgreSQL object-relational database. In effect,
PostGIS "spatially enables" the PostgreSQL server, allowing it to be used as a backend spatial
database for geographic information systems (GIS), much like ESRI's SDE or Oracle's Spatial
extension. PostGIS follows the OpenGIS "Simple Features Specification for SQL" and has been
certified as compliant with the "Types and Functions" profile.
http://postgis.refractions.net/
GMT is an Open Source collection of ca 60 tools for manipulating geographic and Cartesian data
sets (including filtering, trend fitting, gridding, projecting, etc.) and producing Encapsulated
PostScript File (EPS) illustrations ranging from simple x-y plots via contour maps to artificially
illuminated surfaces and 3-D perspective views.
http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/
DIVA-GIS
DIVA-GIS is a geographical information system to analyze plant biodiversity data. It was developed
at the International Potato Center (CIP) to help curate its genebank data. With DIVA, one can create
maps of the geographical distribution of biodiversity (plant and animal species) of the collection
sites. The analytical functions of DIVA allow mapping richness and diversity, (based on DNA data;
mapping the distibution of specific traits; identification of areas with complementary diversity; and
analysis of spatial autocorrelation). DIVA can also extract and use climatic data for the prediction of
the presence of species under different climatic regimes and present the climatic environment of
data collection sites.
http://www.diva-gis.org
GeoNetwork
GeoNetwork Open Source is a standards based, Free and Open Source catalog application to
manage spatially referenced resources through the web. It provides powerful metadata editing and
search functions as well as an embedded interactive web map viewer.
http://geonetwork-opensource.org/
GeoNetwork Open Source implements both the portal component and the catalog database of a
Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) . GeoNetwork opensource supports a distributed search providing
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access to a huge volume of metadata that come from different data sources (files, maps, databases)
and also provides a web-based interactive map viewer.
Information which is emitted to "empty space" is a waste of financial and labour resources. Taking
the user into account is essential for the success of information systems.
Regarding decision support systems, there has been a catalog of requirements by Enna Hennessey
from DEFRA (HENNESSEY 2007) which deserves the attention of developers:
► Honesty: A tool which was developed for a specific purpose should not be sold as the answer to
everything! Modellers should be honest about what the model can and cannot do and any model is
only as good as the data it contains.
► Utility: Tools need to be reliable and efficient. If a tool is to be used for scenario planning, efforts
need to be made to include all likely permutations. Tools should allow the easy inclusion of new
data, they should reflect the current situation and consider potential updates, taking into account
issues such as climate change.
► Ease of use: Tools must be relatively easy to use – it is essential that this is not dismissed as
trivial. Remember that the end-users are unlikely to be IT experts and are also busy people who
don’t want to spend days reading a user manual.
► Collaborative: Models (and modellers!) need to be able to work together. It makes little sense to
put funding into lots of models and decision support tools which exist in isolation. A common
framework for decision support tools would be desirable.
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Geographic, Country-specific Differences in Europe
Regarding information technology applications, there is still inequality within Europe. In many of
the Accession Countries, Internet access is not as widespread as in Western Europe (However, there
are exceptions, such as Estonia).
These inequalities have consequences especially in the area of agriculture. Although agriculture was
most industrialized in the former Soviet Union and its satellite regimes, after the breakdown of the
economic system and during the first years of the market economy, this industrial branch has largely
collapsed.
There has been a revival of traditional, not even industrialized, agricultural methods. From the
viewpoint of sustainability, this might be a sustainable way of farming and thus it is not surprising
that Romania has chosen for its national report for sustainable development an image from
traditional agriculture.
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Sustainability Indicators and Policy Background
Overview of Used Indicators
Work on the European indicators for sustainable development is associated with Eurostat. A
Sustainable Development Indicator Framework was established which is based on 10 themes.
(//epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page_pageid=1998,66119021,1998_66292168&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL )
Eurostat states that the themes reflect the seven key challenges of the EU Strategy for Sustainable
Development, as well as the key objective of economic prosperity, and guiding principles related to
good governance.
According to Eurostat, the themes "follow a general gradient from the economic, to the social, and
then to the environmental and institutional dimensions. They are further divided into sub-themes to
organise the set in a way that reflects the operational objectives and actions of the sustainable
development strategy".
Source: Eurostat
Some aspects of this arrangement are problematic. A comparison between the themes which the
indicators monitor and the key challenges defined in the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development
reveal thet there is not an 1.1 match. The themes defined by Eurostat are the following:
The topics which occur in italic are referring to the 7 key challenges in the Sustainable
Development Strategy of the EU ( numbered K1 - K7, see below, section on policies ).
40
From the point of view of environmental sustainability, the following points are remarkable:
► Even though the key challenges in the EU strategy for sustainable development have not been
numbered, climate change was listed first. It has been shifted down to Theme 6 in the Eurostat
listing.
► Indicators related to the objective of economic prosperity have been introduced in the first place
by Eurostat. The level 1 indicator is "Growth rate of GDP" per inhabitant. Obviously, this is not
an indicator which is suitable to measure environmental sustainability. Sub-level indicators on
level 3 like "Effects of innovation on material and energy efficiency" and "Energy intensity of
the economy" can hardly compensate the effect of placing GDP growth on level 1 of the first
theme.
► Area under agri-environmental commitment: This indicator monitors trends in agricultural land
enrolled in agri-environmental measures (AEM) as the share of total utilised agricultural area
(UAA). For EU-15, the data include agri-environmental contracts under Regulation (EC) 2078/1992
and contracts signed in 2000-2005 under the Regulation (EC) 1257/1999. For countries from the
2004 enlargement, agri-environmental contracts under regulation (EC) 1257/1999 started from their
accession to the EU.
► Area under organic farming: The indicator is defined as the share of total utilised agricultural
area (UAA) occupied by organic farming (existing organically-farmed areas and areas in process of
conversion). Organic farming is a method of production, which puts the highest emphasis on
environmental protection and, with regard to livestock production, animal welfare considerations. It
avoids or largely reduces the use of synthetic chemical inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides,
additives and medical products. Farming is only considered to be organic at the EU level if it
complies with Council Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91 and its amendments, which have set up a
comprehensive framework for the organic production of crops and livestock and for the labelling,
processing and marketing of organic products, while also governing imports of organic products
into the EU.
► Livestock density index: The livestock density index provides the number of livestock units
(LSU) per hectare of utilised agricultural area. The LSU is a reference unit which facilitates the
aggregation of livestock from various species and ages. The Eurofarm LSU coefficients, which are
at the basis of this indicator, are established by convention (originally, they were related to the
animals' feed requirements, the reference being a dairy cow with an annual yield of 3000 kg milk,
without additional concentrated feedingstuffs). In the interpretation of the livestock density index,
the limits of this theoretical unit are to be taken into account. The livestock species aggregated in
the LSU total, for the purpose of this indicator, are: equine, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry and
rabbits.
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Agriculture is also monitored in the
► Greenhouse gas emissions by sector - million tonnes CO2 equivalent: This indicator shows the
greenhouse gas emissions of key source categories. A key source category is defined as an emission
source category that has a significant influence on a country's greenhouse gas inventory in terms of
the absolute level of emissions, the trend in emissions, or both. The different greenhouse gases are
weighed based on their global warming potential, and the results are expressed in CO2 equivalents.
Data are listed for the agricultural sector, however, the only country from which data are visible is
Croatia (as of Jan. 27th,2009).
Halting the loss of biodiversity and contributing to a significant reduction in the worldwide rate of
biodiversity loss by 2010 is the aim given by the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development.
The level 1 indicator is, however, doubtful in this respect because the Common Birds Indicator just
excludes (!) the rare species from its database:
► Common Bird Index: This indicator is an aggregated index integrating the population abundance
and the diversity of a selection of common bird species associated with specific habitats. Rare
species are excluded. Two groups of bird species are presented in this indicator: farmland species
(33 species), and all common bird species (123 species). Farmland birds use and have a high
dependence on cultivated land during the nesting season, and for feeding during most of the year.
The category "all common birds" combines the farmland birds groups with other common bird
species. The EU aggregate figure is an estimate based on the following 18 Member States: United
Kingdom, Sweden, Denmark, Czech Republic, Finland, France, The Netherlands, Germany,
Belgium, Latvia, Spain, Austria, Ireland, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Estonia and Portugal.
► Sufficiency of sites designated under the EU Habitats directive: The index of sufficiency of
Member States proposals for sites designated under the habitats directive measures the extent to
which Sites of Community Importance proposed by the Member States adequately cover the species
and habitats listed in Annexes I and II to the habitats directive. 100% indicates sufficiency of
proposals for all Annex I terrestrial habitat types and Annex II terrestrial species of Community
interest occuring in Member States' territories.
It is questionable whether these indicators can really be used to measure whether the aim of halting
the loss of biodiversity is going to be achieved.
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The development of indicators for sustainability in the areas of information technology for
agriculture and biodiversity and their inclusion into official European policies is slow compared to
the progress with indicator systems in other areas such as economy and the social area.
This might have "historical" reasons which are related to the policy background.
In this section, the political framework is discussed on the level of the major European strategies:
The European Strategy for Sustainable Development and the Lisbon Strategy.
In 2000, the European Union gave itself a new agenda during the Portuguese Presidency. This
agenda gave a high priority to the development of the new IT-based service economy.
"The Union has today set itself a new strategic goal for the next decade: to become the most
competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic
growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. Achieving this goal requires an
overall strategy aimed at:
► preparing the transition to a knowledge-based economy and society by better policies for the
information society and R&D, as well as by stepping up the process of structural reform for
competitiveness and innovation and by completing the internal market;
► modernising the European social model, investing in people and combating social exclusion;
► sustaining the healthy economic outlook and favourable growth prospects by applying an
appropriate macro-economic policy mix."
Neither the term agriculture was mentioned in the Lisbon Strategy, nor the term biodiversity.
Mainstream thinking pointed to a different direction in the period of the late '90s (before the dotcom
crash):
► First of all, a fundamental shift to a new service economy was expected. This service economy
was assumed to replace the industrial society. In a situation in which even the industrial society was
considered to be left behind, there was not much space for thought about the even older economic
branch: agriculture as the primary sector of the economy. It was not on the (Lisbon) agenda.
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"The shift to a digital, knowledge-based economy, prompted by new goods and services, will be a
powerful engine for growth, competitiveness and jobs. In addition, it will be capable of improving
citizens' quality of life and the environment."
Given the mainstream of the Lisbon Agenda it is not surprising that from the key strategic
document of the European Union, there was not much support for the development of
environmentally related IT applications in agriculture - a paradox with an information technology
focussed strategy.
In June 2001, the Goeteborg Council agreed upon the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development
which completed the Union's political commitment to economic and social renewal (the Lisbon
Strategy) by emphasizing the third, environmental dimension of sustainability.
The Strategy for Sustainable Development was composed of two main parts. The first focused on a
number of key unsustainable trends and proposed objectives and a series of policy measures. The
priorities were to:
The Sustainability Strategy confirmed the goal according to which "biodiversity decline should be
halted with the aim of reaching this objective by 2010.
In 2006, the EU Strategy was revised. It is now including 7 key challenges (arranged below
according to the listing in the strategy, numbering included by the authors). For every key
challenge, corresponding targets, operational objectives and actions have been defined.
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Key Challenge 2. Sustainable transport
Overall objective: to ensure that our transport systems meet society’s economic, social and
environmental needs whilst minimising their undesirable impacts on the economy, society and the
environment.
One remarkable change is that the New EU Strategy for Sustainable Development now includes a
chapter on the relation to the knowledge society.
The Key targets listed in the Strategy for Sustainable Development had been followed by a chapter:
Cross Cutting Policies Contributing to the Knowledge Society. It has two sub-topics, namely
"Education and training" and "Research and development". Both have a high relevance regarding
the application and development of information technology, however, there would also be the need
to have them better represented in the indicator system.
But this Chaper of the EU Strategy for Sustainable Development is not reflected by a section in the
monitoring system, and even though there are general indicators regarding innovation, the area of
information technology is underrepresented in the indicator system for monitoring SD.
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4. Future Potential, Limitations, Research Demand
A) Agriculture
Information technology is an essential tool for further increasing resource efficiency in agriculture.
Efficiency increases for example by GPS farming or by the application of advanced sensor
technologies for monitoring yields on inhomogeneous fields.
Limitations are created by the very inhomogeneous structure of agriculture in Europe. Small farms
in structurally weak areas or in mountain regions fall more behind if they are not able to catch up
with the technological development. A technological gap between regions within European
countries could cause problematic structural change. A high tech agriculture in one part of Europe
might be so extremely efficient that low tech farmers, for example, in some Accession Countries,
might be no longer competitive, not even on their local markets.
Another limitation is given by the Rebound effects. Information technology increases efficiency,
meaning that precious resources can be saved. However, this efficiency gain is always related to the
relative unit produced. Efficiency increase does not mean that the overall resource consumption is
decreasing. On the contrast, it is possible that while efficiency is increased by a new technology,
prices thereafter are reduced. This in return stimulates consumption. And additional consumpton
might even overrule the net effect of efficiency gains, leading finally to a higher overall resource
consumption.
Some technologies which increase efficiency, even bear risks. Forest harvesters might be used for
large-scale deforestation. If the frameworks do not enforce subsequent reforestation of forests, this
would reduce the options for sustainable development.
Effects and limitations of ICT applications in the area of agriculture and biodiversity
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B) Biodiversity
There is a clear and straightforward relation between biodiversity and sustainable development. The
maintenance of genetic, species and ecosystem biodiversity directly contributes to sustainable
development. And information technology makes it possible to inform experts and also the public
better than ever before about species and biotopes.
However, in the area of biodiversity, the link between ICT application and real biodiversity
conservation might be not as straightforward as expected. It has not been sufficiently proven that
the wealth of biodiversity information placed on the Internet has a decisive effect for maintaining
biodiversity in reality (see diagram above). In an extreme scenario, the description of a species in
the virtual world might just be completed at the moment when it disappears from real Earth.
A limiting factor of successful application of ICT for biodiversity conservation and management is
therefore the link between establishing "virtual" and maintaining real biodiversity. There are
external factors both in developed and developing countries which prevent successful application of
scientific results. In such a situation, producing more scientific results will not help. The challenge
is then, how to make the existing knowledge have an impact on political decisions.
There are some further areas where the potential of ICT for biodiversity and agriculture faces
limitations. Again, the limitations are created by frameworks which are beyond the reach of the
technology. Maintenance of agro-biodiversity proves to be very difficult because rare cultivars and
races often produce a lower yield. Farmers cultivating traditional crops do an important job for
society, maintaining agrobiodiversity, but they are not paid for their efforts – it is just the opposite
way round.
Improvement of Sensors
Agriculture is a challenge for ICT. Compared to the situation of assembling a car, the conditions in
the fields are highly sophisticated. There are irregular surroundings, fruits are soft and can easily be
damaged, they have a variety of shapes and colors. Both the sensoric part and „sensitive action“
(challenge of strawberry picking) have a potential of improvement.
Selective Harvesting
A target of research could be selective harvesting. Usually, not all specimen are ready for harvesting
at the same time. Selective harvesting would mean that automated systems are able to detect the
ripeness of crops and only select the best ones, the other ones remaining in place to be picked up
47
later. This would reduce the pressure on plant breeding to produce crops which are ripe all at the
same time.
Vertical Farming might have a potential to support sustainable development, and is a research area
which is very much depending on the interaction between different disciplines. It includes
architecture, pest control, and management of the supplies and of the harvest. These activities will
be highly dependent on information technology. ICT applications which support vertical farming
are an experimental area of research with a potentially valuable return.
Vulnerability Research
Via information technology, agriculture is entering a new era. However, application also leads to
new vulnerabilities. Technology might be subject to technical failure, there might be problems with
satellites that direct GPS farming devices. Malicious software might interfere with sensor networks.
How autonomous are autonomous systems? And last but not least: It has always been the strategy
during wars to damage the enemy's population's food supply. Which are the options of future
agriculture in case of large scale technical failure? Which emergency scenarios could be established,
and how could we ensure that in the case of failure of high-tech agriculture, low-tech farming could
be re-established?
Diversity Research
It is very unclear, how future technology will support or limit agricultural diversity. There is the
possibility that agricultural products will be even more designed for the needs of the harvesting and
food processing machines (at least as long as those are not sufficiently developed to deal with
diversity). However, reduction of diversity will reduce food security.
Eco-Efficiency Research
Due to the early stage of the ICT based agriculture, there are not sufficient data available regarding
the overall efficiency of the systems. Clearly, IT-based systems will need energy, and also the IT
backbone is energy consuming, as well as the production of the specific devices. Agrobots which
act rather autonomously and which are powered by renewable energy resources could be a target of
research. Related to the sustainability aspect, it will be necessary to assess the new tools in a
comprehensive way.
Accompanying research regarding acceptance. Nutrition more than supplying humans with calories.
Experience with gene technology has shown that a whole industrial branch can face resistance if the
attitude of the population is not sufficiently taken into account. Public acceptance is critical for
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autonomous field systems. They might be subject to sabotage if their application (such as tractors
without drivers) is not tolerated by the population.
Information technology applications will change the employment structure in agriculture. It will
move more from low-skilled workers towards working places with higher and with special technical
requirements. Activities are needed, which forecast future needs and develop training programmes.
Information technologies are characterized by gender gaps, both in the application area and in the
sector of technology development. In a situation in which technology is entering a new field like
agriculture, it is recommended to study whether via IT, new gender gaps might be "imported" to
agriculture.
Whereas in the tertiary sector, in the office area, there is growing awareness for the question of
accessibility and standards, there could be much more activity in this area of the agricultural sector,
if the development of Open Source systems were supported by respective research programmes.
There will be more and more need of support systems for ageing farmers. The group will undergo
the same process of aging as the rest of the European population. Research is needed in order to
assess how ICT can help the needs of an ageing population group which highly depends on personal
mobility, health, and – still, in spite of all machine equipment - physical strength.
Multi-Dimensional Research
A major challenge is still the synthesis of different disciplines in research programmes. Bringing
together two entities like the environment and agriculture is a difficult task. There are examples,
like the LIFE programme of the EC, which demonstrate that this is possible. Scanning the projects
dealing with agriculture (see EC 2008) for the uses of ICT reveals that many projects are using ICT
as a more or less crucial component or tool for their work. It would be beneficial for the innovation
potential if generally proposals were also checked from the ICT perspective in order to make sure
that IT applications are selected in an optimal manner.
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Research on Metadata and Knowledge Management Systems
The large amount of systems, software, sensors, database solutions, the lack of compatibility call for
efforts to set up user-friendly metadata structures in the area of ICT and agriculture. Management of
knowledge in the key area of ICT and agriculture will be crucial for the competitiveness of both
European farms and European sofware developers.
Further development of innovative ICT applications is possible in all of the mentioned areas. The
ICT revolution in agriculture is still at the beginning. Apart from the recommended research areas,
there might be some further aspects to be considered during the design of future work programmes:
► ICT in agriculture is related to many additional research fields like architecture, landscape
planning, culture.... It is recommended that future research programmes are designed in a way
that facilitates access of experts from these disciplines.
► Activities such as the field robot events demonstrate that there is a lot of enthusiasm and
potential for innovation located in smaller organisations or institutions, or even among
individuals. In order to support this potential, a new category of small scale activities in EU
research programmes would be highly beneficial.
As outlined earlier, biodiversity research and ICT applications are more directly linked to
sustainable development. Practically all research intends to support a more sustainable
development. Therefore, the research recommendations in this area are not just oriented towards
technologies, but also could help ICT for biodiversity to have more effects in practice:
Development and application of sensor systems are making progress, but there is still a high
potential for innovative approaches and applications
Online recording of biodiversity data is possible directly in the field via mobile internet devices.
Application oriented research in this area could help to improve the tools and to make them
applicable on the spot.
► One key challenge in the area of ICT for biodiversity conservation and management is research
on the relation between information technology and actual conservation of biodiversity:
► How do websites with information about biodiversity actually help to maintain biodiversity in
reality,
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► Which obstacles can be identified that reduce the impact of online information,
► Which technical design has to be chosen for online services to make them better promote
biodiversity in real life
It is recommended to check EU-funded projects for the link between information and practical
effects and to include such an assessment of the efficiency in the monitoring criteria during the
projects.
It is possible that online information about species that are threatened to be exctinct is combined
with GIS information systems and could help criminals to find and collect rare species. However,
there is hardly any discussion about this risk and research is needed to assess the problems and to
reduce the risks.
Agrobiodiversity Research
Agrobiodiversity is a special issue which is related both to biodiversity and agriculture. In many
countries, there is still the need for research related to the assessment of agricultural biodiversity.
Also in this case, volunteers' integration in the design of online systems is essential.
Restrictive handling of data by researchers is a problem not only in the area of biodiversity. It is
recommended to strengthen the aspect of free availability of data and ICT systems in projects which
are funded by the public - in all cases in which access would not create a risk for endangered
species.
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5. References and Literature
Baggio, Aline ,
LOFAR Wireless sensor network in precision
agriculturehttp://www.sics.se/realwsn05/papers/baggio05wireless.pdf
Barber, Lindsay
Precision Agriculture: The Future of Aerial Application
http://www.agaviation.org/MagazineFeatures/Mar%20Apr%20Precision%20Agriculture.pdf
Bella, SZ
Changing climate and the spatial distribution of optimal production area of maize
http://www.efita.net/apps/accesbase/bindocload.asp?
d=6154&t=0&identobj=Kg4Hcj2S&uid=57305290&sid=57&idk=1
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Dr. Richard Smith 2003
BioNET: Capacity building in taxonomy, Richard Smith (Publications)
https://www.ippc.int
Dupouy, Emmanuel
L'agriculture de precision
http://www.terre-net.fr/dossiers/agriprec/ap_01.asp
EEA 2007
Halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010:
proposal for a first set of indicators to monitor progress in Europe
http://reports.eea.europa.eu/technical_report_2007_11/en/
EEA 2007
Biodiversity Change Reports
http://reports.eea.europa.eu/index_table?themeid=biodiversity
EFITA 2007
EFITA conference proceedings 2007
http://www.efita.net/apps/accesbase/dbsommaire.asp?
d=6147&t=0&identobj=Bo2UMpQA&uid=57305290&sid=57&idk=1
Evans,Rhys, 2006
Farmers online: drivers and impediments in adoption of Internet in UK agricultural businesses
http://www.ruralfuturesconference.org/2006/Evans.pdf
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Fischetti, Mark, Scientific American 2008
Growing Vertical
http://www.verticalfarm.com/PDF/SciAm-Oct08.pdf
Fritzmeier, 2008,
product description Laser System MINIVEG
http://www.fritzmeier.com/dt/Sitemap/Map_Set.html
Greenpeace2008
Cool Farming – Climate Impacts of Agriculture
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/canada/en/documents-and-links/publications/cool-farming-
climate-impacts.pdf
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INFITA (International Network for Informational Technology in Agriculture)
JITAG - The Journal of Information Technology in
Agriculturehttp://www.jitag.org/about/about.htm
Kabashi, Amar H
Vesel Project: A technical framework for designing wireless sensor networks for agricultural
monitoring in developing regions
http://www.veselproject.net/files/NSDR08.pdf
Knapp, Louise
SlugBot: Enemy of Slugs
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2001/10/47156
Lombardi, Candace,
Cnet 2008 Former iRobot employees cultivate new idea
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17912_3-10004350-72.html
Martin, Vincent 2008 Towards a Video Camera Network for Early Pest Detection in Greenhouses
http://www-sop.inria.fr/pulsar/projects/bioserre/file/endure.pdf
Müller-Merbach, Mareile,
2005 Roboter im Rübenfeld: Wie kleine intelligente Maschinen die Landwirtschaft der Zukunft
bestimmen
http://www.wissenschaft.de/wissenschaft/hintergrund/257557.html
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Potzel, Dieter, Das weisse Pferd, 2000
Sollen Maschinen die Herrschaft der Menschen über die Erde beenden?
http://www.das-weisse-pferd.com/00_21/roboter_2.html
Reichardt, M. 2006
Results of a multitemporal survey on the adoption of precision farming in
Germanywww.preagro.de/Veroeff/PF-adoption-in-Germany.doc
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Skrdla 2004
Geospacial Applications in Precision Farming
http://www.gisteam.de/ftp/Tutorial/farming.pdf
The Institute of Nanotechnology – Tiju Joseph et al 2006 Nanotechnology in Agriculture and Food
– Report.
http://www.nanoforum.org/dateien/temp/nanotechnology%20in%20agriculture%20and%20food.pdf
Wickham, David,
2008 Roboter senken Kosten beim Verpacken um 80%
http://www.maschinenmarkt.vogel.de/themenkanaele/automatisierung/robotik/articles/118370/
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European Support
Centre
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