By: Chad Stonehocker
GEOG-1780
R. Adam Dastrup, MA, GISP
GIS technology – closer to your workthan you may think
I am a current employee of Verizon Wireless, and have exposure to the groundbreaking utilization of technology and GIS information that is partnering with the Agriculture (AG) Industry to better utilize resources and bring predictability and reliability to consumer’s operations
The internet of things (iot)
- Irrigation and water conservation is a starting point and crucial.
- Determining proper irrigation when natural weather conditions change driving needs.
- Determine disease and other detrimental crop hazards.
- Use connected devices and surveillance techniques to watch for changes that indicate disease and infestation
- Analyze crop yields and rotation based on soil conditions and measurements.
Verizon is also Partnering with esri and dominion
Verizon Wireless has also taken leaps forward in partnering with Dominion and ESRI to comply with federal and state mandates for updating referencing pole locations as well as for plotting their locations for future identification. As stated in the article:
“In 2001, Dominion and Verizon contracted with Esri Business Partner Timmons Group, a full-service GIS consulting firm headquartered in Virginia, to conduct a joint-use survey in their combined territories located throughout Virginia. Dominion and Verizon chose Timmons Group for its qualifications, including field crews, extensive experience with GPS technologies, and a geospatial applications development group needed to undertake this project. The survey consisted of collecting GPS coordinates and attribute information on 620,000 poles associated with 16,000 miles of service lines, using an average of 10 field technicians working at any given time. Timmons Group helped the two companies develop a method to collect joint-use and ownership data in an efficient and accurate manner. Data was captured and submitted as a final product digitally. This digital information provided a spatially enabled database and the framework for a GIS.” (Trott)
Food growth is one factor of extreme importance in the future
Can We feed the future? This story map at ESRI.com may help us understand better:
It is becoming a world problem that requires a world solution to feed all, and focus more on sustainability and efficiencies which GIS usage in AG will assist greatly, the predominant causes are as according to one writer at below2c.org
“The spiraling demand for resources including food is primarily caused by growing economies of India, China and other SE Asian countries such as South Korea and Viet Nam. The demand for resources and for food in particular will grow exponentially as developing countries aspire to the Western way of life focused on consumption. Demand for food is projected to rise by 70% by 2050 according to the UN.” (Montpellier)
All of this information will lead us to the conclusion that utilizing increasing efficiencies in GIS, GPS, and overall analysis will help the world and industry better cope with the changing needs of the future.
References
Montpellier, Rolly. Overpopulation: Food Crisis and Future Hunger Wars. 14 September 2012. http://below2c.org/2012/09/overpopulation-food-crisis-and-future-hunger-wars/. 17 April 2017.
Trott, Randy. Dominion and Verizon Use Mobile GIS and GPS to Conduct Joint-Use Pole Survey. 2004 / 2006. http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/winter0405articles/dominion-verizon.html. 17 April 2017.
Wireless, Verizon. Verizon Wireless Agriculture. 2017.
